Washington, United States
the first CIA attempt to assassinate Raúl Castro dates back to 1960 when an agent offered the pilot taking him to Prague $ 10,000 to “orchestrate an accident,” according to documents released last Friday by the National Security Archive, Based in Washington.
The plan consisted of offer the Cuban pilot José Raúl Martínez a payment for him to “incur risks to orchestrate an accident” on the return flight from Prague.
Martinez was informed of the mission by his contact with the CIA in Cuba William J. Murray on a drive to the airport.
In the conversation they discussed the “limited chances of the incident going through an accident” and doubts about the agent’s technical ability to incur an accident “without endangering the lives of everyone on board.” .
The pilot, who already worked for the CIA, “sought to ensure that in the event of his own death his two children received a college education,” to which Murray agreed, according to a cable quoted by the National Security Archive.
Another published document indicates that after starting the trip, the Washington office in Havana he received orders to leave the mission, but they had no way to contact the pilot.
On his return Martinez informed Murray “that he had no opportunity to fix an accident as they had discussed.”
These documents are published to coincide with the farewell of Raúl Castro from political life in Cuba, who is retiring as first secretary of the Communist Party.
The “accident plot” was described in a report by a Senate committee that in 1976 addressed alleged conspiracies to assassinate foreign leaders, following an investigation into covert CIA operations, led by Senator Frank. Church.
but the National Security Archive he stressed that key details were then omitted such as that the killer was a pilot or that the “accident” involved civil aviation.
This plot precedes several plans to assassinate Raúl’s brother, longtime leader Fidel Castro, and the failed anti-Castro invasion of Cochin Bay – funded by the CIA on April 16, 1961.
For National Security Archive historian Peter Kornbluh, “these documents are a reminder of a dark and sinister past of U.S. operations against the Cuban Revolution.”
“At a time when the Castro era is officially coming to an end, U.S. officials have a chance to leave behind this historic burden and commit to a future of a post-Castro Cuba,” he indicated.