Castro sister was spy for CIA

The younger sister of Fidel Castro collaborated with the CIA in the 1960s as the agency was trying to assassinate him.

Juanita Castro said she helped her brother's "arch-enemy" for three years from 1961, even sheltering opponents of his communist regime in her Havana home before she defected to America in 1964.

The period covered the abortive United States-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis a year later, as well as dozens of CIA attempts on Castro's life.

After becoming disillusioned with her brother's revolution over its violence and embrace of communism, Juanita Castro said she responded positively when the CIA sought her help.

Juanita Castro, 76, has spent the past 35 years running a small pharmacy in Miami and has not spoken to Fidel in 40 years. While there have been suggestions she helped US intelligence, she has only admitted it in a new book, Fidel and Raul, My Brothers, the Secret History.

Like her six siblings, she initially supported the Cuban revolution against Fulgencio Batista, in her case travelling abroad to raise money to buy arms.

After the Castros took power, she took over the creation and management of hospitals and clinics, but lost confidence in her brothers as they moved towards communism, confiscated private property and executed opponents.

She and other members of her wealthy clan were incensed when Fidel and Raul imposed "agrarian reform" on some family estates. "I began to become disenchanted when I saw so much injustice," she said. Juanita Castro began sheltering those persecuted by her brother's government.

"My situation in Cuba became delicate because of my activity against the regime," she said. "Fidel stopped coming to our house because he complained we were protecting what he called 'worms' [enemies of the regime] and he did not agree."

One day someone who knew both her and Fidel brought her an invitation from the CIA.

"They wanted to talk to me because they had interesting things to tell me, and interesting things to ask me, such as if I was willing to take the risk, if I was ready to listen to them - I was rather shocked, but anyway I said yes," she said.

Juanita Castro gave damning evidence about her brothers' regime in evidence to Congress's controversial Un-American Activities Committee, disclosing that Cuba's embassies and its national airline were involved in espionage and arms running.

She last spoke to Fidel in 1963, after their mother, Lina, died. A year later, he reportedly denounced her as a "counter-revolutionary worm" after she started selling the cattle on their mother's estate before he could expropriate the land.

- INDEPENDENT