Did Castro do it?

The Senate’s Church committee found at least eight CIA plots to kill Castro between 1960 and 1965. Some used the Mafia: through Robert Maheu, the CIA recruited John Roselli, who brought in Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante. [1]

The longest was AMLASH, the code name for Rolando Cubela, a Cuban official. On 29 October 1963 a senior CIA officer, Desmond FitzGerald, met him and presented himself as a personal representative of Robert Kennedy. On 22 November, in Paris, his case officer offered Cubela a ballpoint pen rigged with a hypodermic needle. [1][2]

The House committee concluded Castro “may well have known” about AMLASH by 22 November. [2][3]

On 7 September 1963, at a Brazilian embassy reception, Castro told Associated Press reporter Daniel Harker that the U.S. was “aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders” and that U.S. leaders would be in danger if they did. [1][2]

The CIA reviewed the interview in 1975 when the plots became public. The Warren Commission was never told about the plots against Castro. [2][1]

In New Orleans in 1963 Oswald handed out leaflets for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and argued with Cuban exiles. In Mexico City he tried to get a visa to Cuba and was refused. [2][1]

The committee examined reports that Cuba had paid Oswald or that a Cuban got away on a delayed Cubana flight to Havana that night. It found the Cubana plane left at 8:30 p.m., before the private plane supposedly carrying the passenger landed. [1]

It concluded the Cuban government was not involved. Castro, interviewed in Havana, said the idea was “insane” and that Cuba had nothing to gain. Cuba cooperated with the committee and let two of its Mexico City consuls testify. [1]

The Bay of Pigs in April 1961 left many Cuban exiles bitter at Kennedy, and the U.S. covert war against Castro that followed under Operation Mongoose was run with exile help. [1][2]

The committee concluded that anti-Castro Cuban groups, as groups, were not involved, but that the evidence did not rule out individual members. That is where the Odio story fits. [1]

While the CIA ran AMLASH, the White House ran a secret back channel. ABC reporter Lisa Howard put U.S. diplomat William Attwood in touch with Cuba’s UN ambassador in September 1963. On 5 November Kennedy approved a meeting, telling his aide McGeorge Bundy that Attwood should be taken off the government payroll first so the contact could be denied. The talks died with him. [1]