Castro’s sister admits she was a CIA spy

Juanita Castro, the sister of Fidel and Raúl Castro, admitted that she worked with the CIA in the 1960s.  She makes the claim in her memoirs, Fidel, Raul, My Brothers, the Secret History.

Juanita said she was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in Havana two years after the 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.

She said she agreed to be the CIA’s mole in Cuba, because she had become disenchanted when Fidel abandoned the nationalist democratic revolution he promised, and instead imposed a one-party Marxist state “simply out of the need to hold power.”

She writes in her autobiography:  “Did I feel remorse about betraying Fidel by agreeing to meet with his enemies?  No, for one simple reason:  I didn’t betray him.  He betrayed me.

“He betrayed the thousands of us who suffered and fought for the revolution that he had offered, one that was generous and just and would bring peace and democracy to Cuba, and which, as he himself had promised, would be as ‘Cuban as palm trees’.”

Juanita, given the codename “Donna,” said she had code books for instructions from the CIA.

She said she became a spy not for money, but to be able to assist citizens who turned against Fidel escape persecution by the Cuban secret police.  She often used her mother’s house to give shelter to the rebels.

Juanita fled Cuba a year after her mother, Lina Ruz Gonzalez died, believing she no longer had her protection.  She now resides in Miami.

[via bbc.co.uk]