The height of the Cold War saw Fidel Castro became the Prime Minister of Cuba in 1959. Anti-American to the core, it was natural for him to align with the Communist Soviet Union, a horrifying thought for U. S government. Therefore, the U.S government made many attempts to eliminate Castro. Most of the attempts were incredible and quixotic, a reflection of the desperation of the Americans.
In fact, according to Fabian Escalante who was in charge of Castro's security, an estimated 638 attempts on the leader's life were made. The first of the attempts was called Operation Mongoose and entrusted to 400 CIA agents. The idea was to raise a guerilla force to oppose the leader. It failed miserably because of Castro's astounding popularity. Some thing more radical had to be done. The CIA realized that the mafia had a grouse against Castro for throwing them out of the Cuba. They were ready to offer some leniency to the mobsters. However, the cunning mafia only played along Ð they enjoyed the leniency convinced that the revolution in Cuba would continue even if Castro died.
Operation Freedom was another plot to kill Castro. President John F. Kennedy assigned the job to his brother Robert Kennedy. What followed were incredible and fantastic attempts, the kind we expect to see in James Bond movies. For instance, when Castro was attending a U.N meeting, a CIA agent is supposed to have slipped a poison cigar into his cigar case. The plan was discovered and Castro survived. Remaining with cigars, the CIA considered giving Castro explosive cigars and drugged psychedelic cigars too.
While CastroÕ fondness for cigars could not be exploited by CIA, they tried to knock him off while he indulged in his favorite sport, scuba diving. Story has it that the U.S lawyer sent to Cuba to negotiate the release of prisoners after the Bay of Pigs incident was provided with a scuba suit contaminated by the horrible tuberculosis and madura foot disease causing germs by the CIA. The lawyer did not carryout the plot eventually as felt that it would embarrass the U.S. Then there the idea to place a bomb in his diving spot concealed in a conch shell was tried.
Poison pills to pens that shoot poison and telescopic rifles, nothing has been successful. The last aborted attempt came in 2000 during the dictator's visit to Panama. Explosives were discovered under the podium from which he was going to address by his security staff. A Cuban exile named Luis Posada and a CIA operative were arrested. The U.S is no longer obsessed with the idea of dumping him. For Castro's security personnel, there will be no respite from ensuring the safety of their enigmatic leader.
