Castro's sister worked against him for CIA

Published on Monday 26 October 2009 21:09

ONE of Fidel Castro's sisters has revealed she collaborated with the CIA against her brother, starting shortly after the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

Juanita Castro, 76, initially supported her brother's 1959 overthrow of the Batista dictatorship but quickly grew disillusioned.

In an autobiography published yesterday, she says the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to Cuba persuaded her to meet a CIA officer during a trip to Mexico in 1961.

By then, her house had already become a sanctuary for anti-communists, and Fidel Castro had warned her about getting involved with the "gusanos", or worms, as those who opposed the revolution were called.

Ms Castro says in the book, My Brothers Fidel and Raul. The Secret Story, that she travelled to Mexico City under the pretence of visiting her younger sister, Enma. There, she secretly met a CIA officer who identified himself as "Enrique" at the Camino Real hotel.

During the meeting, she expressed concern that those who supported Batista's overthrow but were not communists were being pushed out of the new government. She says she agreed to help the CIA gather information but refused to accept money for her efforts and said she wanted no part in any violence against her brother of any official in his regime.

"This is my most important condition," she told the agent. "And, moreover, I would say it is the only condition."

"Enrique" then asked her to smuggle messages, documents and money back into the country hidden in canned goods.

Ms Castro said she remained on Cuba while her mother was alive, believing she was protected from the wrath of her brother. Her mother died in 1963 and she fled the following year, eventually settling in Miami.