JFK assassination: Did Castro know before it happened?
In 'Castro's Secrets,' a former CIA analyst claims that Fidel Castro was aware that the Kennedy assassination would be attempted before it happened.
In 'Castro's Secrets,' a former CIA analyst claims that Fidel Castro was aware that the Kennedy assassination would be attempted before it happened.
A new book by a former CIA analyst is claiming that Fidel Castro knew that the assassination of John F. Kennedy would take place.
鈥淐astro鈥檚 Secrets: The CIA and Cuba鈥檚 Intelligence Machine鈥� by Brian Latell, who was formerly the national intelligence officer for Latin America for the CIA and who currently serves as the senior research associate at the University of Miami鈥檚 Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, uses formerly classified documents from the Pentagon, FBI and CIA. 鈥淪ecrets鈥� also includes interviews from former Cuban spies.
鈥淓verything I write is backed up by documents and on-the-record sources,鈥� Latell said in an interview with The Miami Herald. 鈥淭here鈥檚 virtually no speculation. I don鈥檛 say Fidel Castro ordered the assassination, I don鈥檛 say Oswald was under his control. He might have been, but I don鈥檛 argue that, because I was unable to find any evidence for that.鈥�
In his book, Latell makes the claim that Castro knew of the assassination beforehand with evidence from Florentino Aspillaga, a former member of Cuba鈥檚 intelligence service. According to Latell鈥檚 book, Aspillaga, who usually did surveillance of the radio communications of the CIA, was told on Nov. 22, 1963 to instead listen to any radio communications coming from Texas. Aspillaga said he was confused but did so, and was flabbergasted to hear the news of Kennedy鈥檚 assassination hours later.
鈥淐astro knew,鈥� Aspillaga told a CIA debriefer, according to Latell鈥檚 book. 鈥淭hey knew Kennedy would be killed.鈥�
In his book, Latell discusses recordings taken by the CIA inside the Cuban embassy that showed Cuban intelligence officers talking about Oswald with details about him that were relatively unknown at the time and had not yet been given to any newspapers.
Kennedy鈥檚 assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was known to sympathize with Cuba and held public demonstrations in support of Castro. At several points, he applied for a visa to travel to Cuba, but was refused the documents. After the assassination, Castro said, 鈥淲e never in our life heard of him鈥� in a speech, but according to Latell鈥檚 book, Oswald visiting the Cuban embassy was big news in Cuba, and Castro would certainly have heard about it.
In Latell鈥檚 book, an FBI spy named Jack Childs told the FBI that after being refused a visa to travel to Cuba by workers at the Cuban embassy, Oswald left angrily, saying, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to kill Kennedy for this.鈥�
鈥淪ecrets鈥� also claims that Cuban Rolando Cubela, who worked with the CIA, was actually a double agent.
Latell鈥檚 book will be released April 24.
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.