Fidel Castro and the CIA’s 638 assassination attempts Fidel Castro who died at the age of 90 on November 25 shared his surprise at reaching a landmark age […]

Fidel Castro who died at the age of 90 on November 25 shared his surprise at reaching a landmark age during his final public speech.

Castro told the crowd that reaching 90 was “something i’d never imagined.”

Considering the number of attempts by the CIA to take his life, it’s a fair statement.

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After the Cuban Revolution, the US wanted to put a stop to communism and install a government more in line with US philosophy.

The former boss of Cuba’s counterintelligence estimated that the CIA attempted to assassinate Castro on 638 occasions.

Operation Mongoose

Many of the attempts were under Operation Mongoose, a CIA programme which aimed to topple the Cuban government. It was developed during the first year of John F Kennedy’s administration.

The project aimed at removing the communist regime from power.

During this time there were many ideas on how to assassinate Castro.

It’s alleged that one of them played on Castro’s love of cigars. The plot centered around poisoning cigars which were actually sent from the US to Havana however the plot fell through.

Bizarre attempts

The ideas then became more inventive.

Several took advantage of Castro’s love of his love of underwater fishing.

One idea was to lace a wet suit with toxic bacteria while another was to fill a shell with an explosive device and then place it in his favourite fishing spot.

While another plan was to poison a milkshake.

The former mistress

One of the most famous attempts is that of Marita Lorenz, a mistress of Castro who lived in Cuba. When she became pregnant and then fell ill, she was forced to return to the US for treatment.

It was then that the CIA told her that Castro had organised for her to have a late term abortion.

She agreed to help the organisation carry out an assassination attempt by lacing his drink with a poisonous pill.

However Castro found out about the poison and instead ordered her to shoot him. But she could not go ahead with it.

Change in habits

The plots meant that Castro had to be careful about his security.

As time went on, he could no longer walk alone in the street and at one point he was said to have used doubles to move around freely and deter potential hitmen.

Looking back at the assassination attempts Castro once said: “If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal.”