Killing Fidel October 8, 2014
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary , trackback
The 1975 Church Committee looked at rogue or extreme CIA activities and took a particular interest in the decision in the late 1950s and early 1960s to kill foreign heads of state, who were deemed unfriendly to US interests. Chief of these was, of course, Fidel Castro, a man who had both succeeded in making Cuba a worse place to live (if that was possible) and also doing his best to start a nuclear war. The Church Committee estimated that, incredibly, eight attempts were made on Castro’s life by the USA over two decades. Others have put the number rather higher. One British television documentary is entitled 638 Ways to Kill Castro, some of these attempts carried out by Cuban exiles, some by Cubans, some by freelancers, and, yes, many by American officials and their agents. This post is a celebration of the crazy range of these failed killings.
Poison Pen: the pen in question was given to a Cuban CIA asset. It included a poisoned hyperdemic needle that was so fine that there was the hope that Castro could be injected without el jefe realizing he had been ‘compromised’, death would have followed some hours later. Did the needle break?
Poisoned Cigars: what better way to kill the bearded one that with cigars? There was an attempt to get him botulin in a Cahiba cigar. There were also attempts to give exploding cigars (at the UN?!?) and, moving beyond death, cigars with hallucinogens (apparently with the aim of making Castro do foolish things in public view) and depilatory cigars (to make Castro lose his facial hair and so lose face…)
Killing Camera: A planned attack in Chile (which Fidel was visiting) to murder him with a gun concealed in a camera at a press conference. Called off for an appendicitis.
Bazooka Attack: There were apparently a few of these. The one that came closest was organised by Cuban patriot Antonio Veciana and a group of exiles who decided to fire a bazooka into the window of the Presidential Palace. They even got a house opposite the Presidential Palace but the mission was finally aborted because there was, in the view of the assassins, no possibility of escape.
Operation Ernest: A US attempt to take out Castro on a visit to Hemingway’s farm (and shrine). This has to be the most aesthetically pleasing of the assassination attempts: even if full details have not yet been released. Castro murdered by association with the Old Man. Think of the two in socialist purgatory together: all that chest hair…
Poison Pills: In the early 1960s the CIA paid the mafia to poison Castro’s food through a confidant. Nothing came of the attempt though it involved two of the FBIs most wanted list…
Bomb Shells: not shells as in artillery but shells as in ‘seashells on the sea shore’. A sea-shell would be placed in the water where Castro went diving. Unfortunately the CIA couldn’t find a shell large enough to pack the relative blast underwater.
Poison Diving Suit: If the shell was not big enough why not get Castro a poisoned diving suit? The suit, in question included a dusting of fungus and more importantly tubercle bacillus in the breathing apparatus. In the end the diving suit was rejected, though, by the American (a lawyer) who had been going to (innocently) give it to Castro. Cuba got another generation of Soviet backed communism and Castro kept on swimming.
Other Castro killing: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
