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The Cuban leader, who led a revolution in 1959 that deposed the US -backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, was the target of Washington’s intelligence agencies throughout his life. Vladimir Putin’s recent deployment of a powerful warship in Cuban waters invoked memories of Castro’s links with the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. Despite the Soviets aiding Cuba economically and militarily, former CIA counterintelligence chief James Olson has revealed in a new book that Castro was the master of dealing with any CIA plot to remove him.

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Waves of agents were sent to deal with the revolutionary leader – but none were able to get close to Castro, according to his report.

When ranking countries in terms of their counterintelligence, Mr Olson wrote: “I rank Cuba only number three on the dangerous scale, but I rank it number one on the obnoxious scale.

“When I was chief, no foreign intelligence service rankled me more than the Cuban Intelligence Directorate (DGI).”

Part of the CIA’s strategy in Cuba following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion was to infiltrate the Cuban state on an individual level.

Agents were sent – often from the wave of defectors after Castro’s revolution – to weave their way in and among the leader’s inner circle.