Zach Crawford
(ANSA – French Press Agency) – Washington, April 16 – The CIA attempted to kill Raul Castro in 1960 in his first attempt to assassinate the leader of the Cuban revolution, offering $ 10,000 to a pilot who would drive Fidel’s brother from Prague to Havana. In an “accident”: This was revealed through declassified documents, now published by the National Security Archive in Washington.
Pilot Jose Raul Martinez, who had been recruited by the CIA, had asked in exchange for the agency that he would provide college education for his two sons if he died during the operation. After Martinez left for Prague, the CIA headquarters in the United States decided to cancel the mission. “Do not communicate with the plan” reads a letter sent to Havana. However, Martinez never received this message, and he has now left and cannot be reached.
However, it was he himself who did not carry out the order: returning to Cuba, the pilot told his liaison officer that he had “not had the opportunity to cause an accident as we said.”
Peter Kornbluh, an analyst at the National Security Archive, told AFP that the story sheds new light on “a dark and sinister past of US operations against the Cuban revolution.” “With the official end of the Castro era approaching, American politicians have an opportunity to leave this historical baggage behind and engage in the future of post-Castro Cuba.”
Fidel Castro himself has challenged 11 American presidents and survived numerous plots to assassinate him, 638 according to the Guinness Book of Records, as well as a failed attempt to take the United States down in the Bay of Pigs 60 years ago. (ANSA – French Press Agency).
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