CASTRO SISTER WORKED WITH CIA FOR 4 YEARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67B00446R000100130016-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 16, 2003
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: July 3, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK
HER TR U-Nu
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JUL 3 19 64
By Barnard L.. Collier
Latin American Correspondent
WASHINGTON.
Premier Fidel Castro's sis-
ter, Juana, who defected to
Mexico on June 20, had been
in contact with Central In-
telligence Agency operatives
for nearly four year*, the
Herald Tribune learned -yes-
terday.
And , Premier Castro's
brother, Raul, his trusted No.
2 man as War Minister in
the Communist regime, pro-
tected Juana from the
bearded dictator's wrath for
. all that tie and then. paved
the way for her flight to
Mexico City while Premier
Castro , was ~ away from
Havana.
In Havana on Wednesday,
night Premier Castro told
newsmen that Juana's de-
fection was indeed. 'a blow.
"This incident to me per-
sonally- is very bitter- and
profoundly painful. But I un-
derstand this -is the price of
being a revolutionary."
Highly 'placed intelligence
sources here yesterday con-
firmed that she had been
instrumental in spiriting at
least 200 Cubans out of the
Juana. Castro Raul Castro
. luggage-and'. taken to a one who plotted her escape-
hideaway. mostly out of long-standing
The first public. knowledge brotherly loyalty-before Fi-
that ? Juana had defected ' del Castro could do her phys- It was then that Raul Castro
came 10, days later when the ical harm. stepped in as buffer between
tall 31-year-old brunette par- Juana, who didn't seem to ' his older sister and brother.
ticipated in & ,televised inter- :.cut, out for a, collective way Shortly after the death of
view and .? condemned her of life, and who is described.' Mrs. ' Lina Ruz Castro, the,
brother's regime as "a dicta- . even by Cuban exiles whose ? Castro's mother.( there are l
tdrship of fear," and warned cause her-defection serves as ..'three sons and four daughters
Latin nations to "halt the ,' a "woman with more than a in Fidel Castro's immediate
insidious campaign of .sabo-little larceny in her heart," family, plus a son and a'
tage' and Communist subver 'has been a thorn in Premier daughter by Fidel's father's.'
sion." Castro's side ever ? since he first marriage), came the bit-
The fact that she left took over Cuba. terest split of all between
country. ; Havana's International Air-
The CIA also made it easy ~ port, always swarming with
for Juana to enter Mexico heavily-armed G-2 men,
when she arrived on a sched-. without 'being stopped con-
uled Cubana Airlines flight' firmed ? that her defection
from Havana on the after- das approved and, planned
noon of June 20. "She came., on the highest level of Cuba's
out suite openly," said an , government.
intelligence source. I ` Intelligence sources said
But under Raul's personal Juana ,and Fidel.
protection she remained in'' Afraid that he huge Castro'
..Cuba,. clandestenely aiding estate In Oriente Province
would-be exiles, hiding them 'would be taken over by the
in her 11-room boarding government and that she
house, once the palatial would get no compensation,
.Havana resirence of- one of ' Juana 'sped to 'the planata-
Cuba's richest families, and tion and began selling its
getting away with it because cattle.
of her name, and her connec- When Premier Castro found
friends of high officials out,;
of the country.proved ?aause-? .
ful safety valve for the gov-
ernment itself. Even hard-
bitten CommuWst Ernesto
"Che" Guevara, intelligence
sources -said, used Juana to ;
sneak endangered friends out 1
of the country.
The first trouble between
Juana and Premier Castro
was not ' long, in coming.
Shortly after he assumed
power in 1955, she enraged `
Fidel by using her 'name to'
make a .fat profit, peddling. .
movie cameras and projectors
.to all the country's colleges.:
and universities.
Premier Castro soon put a
stop to that, and threatened'
her with mayhem 'if she in-:
.dulged'in such things again.;
immediately whisked through e ly . anti-Fidelista tions. ? out he violently denounced
the usually scrupu1~13p {~sLedJf rn 31141Q4 GMARDPMOa446ROQb.1001, 3001 e' sano (worm)
ig brother' was
toms-with 21 pieces ? of - retaliation for years, was the. ,, against her big'
i ront1nued
 JUL 3 1964
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ind a counter-revolutionary,
:aced to Oriente to deal with
rer. But again Raul stepped
tn, warned Juana that Fidel
was coming. She managed to
go into hiding in Camaguey
Province until he cooled down.
But Juana's activities for
herself didn't stop there. After
that near-disaster, however,
she operated a good deal more
quietly and turned her Castro-
'baiting talents less toward
personal profit and more to-
ward seriously hurting Fidel.
She was given a seized man-
sion in the Havana suburb of
Miramar which she turned
into a boarding house for gov-
ernment people-and poten-
tial defectors. The house was
under constant surveillance
by the G-2, but even they
were cowed by her name.
Her contacts, most of them
at any rate,, wore known. But
still she managed to get tid-
bits of information to CIA
agents, and managed to in-
creasingly anger Fiael with
every day..
Finally, one source said, the
heat Juana was generating
inside the government raised
Premier Castro's temperature
to the danger point. About
two months ago- Juana's in-
creasing danger became known
to intelligence people in the
U. S. and the way was cleared
CRamon Castro; 48, still in?
Cuba and not too happy with
Fidel, although he is not
openly against the regime. A.
tall, hulking farmer and
not a good speaker, he has
occasionally been browbeaten
and threatened into making
speeches on behalf of the
agrarian reform and agricul
tural program.
CAngela, about 44, lives
quietly in Havana and has
no known taste for politics.
?Q[Emma, 29, lives in Mexico
with her civil engineer hus-
band. Her marriage provoked
Premier Castro into a rage
when it took place in Havana
in 1959, Ho showed up at the
huge cathedral wedding in
sweaty fatigues, touched off
a big family fuss the scars of
which have apparently never
.healed. Emma caiz 'be con-
sidered to have defected.
4'Augustina, 27, lives in
Europe with a Spanish plan--
.1st, takes little interest in
Cuban Affairs, but her politi-
cal bent is not well known.
([Emilia Argote, the first
wife of Premier Castro's fa-
ther Angel, lives in Havana
o a $nlOO-a-month pension
paid personally by her, step-
son Raul, who seems devoted
to her for her former kindness
to him.
CPedro Hmilion Castro
Argote, in his late forties, is
now somewhere in Central
America, probably Honduras.
could get out of Cuba.
Juana, as a parting favor
faom Raul, managed -to get
the permits necessary because,
as one informed source said,
"She was getting to be a real
-Pain in the neck to him, and
she was hurting his position."
There was no confirmation
that Premier Castro knew
Castro and the son of Emilia
Argote, he fled Cuba in 1960
after his 12-year-old son stole
his pistol and shot a playmate
after a fight.
Idia Argote, in her, late.;
forties, the daughter of Emilia;
is pro-Castro, lives in Havana
and has a minor posiiion with ,
the, government.
-anything about Juana's de- Marta Diaz Balart, in her
pasture, and it appeared that. . early thirties, was the wife of
great pains were taken to
schedule her leaving when he
was not In Havana.
;The defection has been wel-
c6med by Cuban exiles and
has caused speculation about
I?remier Castro's influence
with his other brothers and
. sisters. At the moment, it
seems, Premier Castro's family
p%oblems stack up about this
Why:
Fidel until their bitter divorce
In 1960. A stunning blue-eyed
blonde she has since remar-
ried a lawyer, lives in the -
beachside town of Parara
about eight miles from Hava-
na and stays out of politics.
. Fidelito, 14, Fidel's son, was
sent to school for nearly two
years in Russia, now lives in
Havana with reliable" pro-
Castro Guardians. .
NOTE: A shorter version of the Collier story, not including the
material after the arrow above,. appeared in the 3 July 1964
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ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH.
 THE NEW YQQ TTIIMEME
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JULY 3, 1964
C.I.A. ~ positions in cities and villages!
Castro s Sister Liked to Cin Cuba's provinces. ,
She sought out personal !that her departure would be
ma'nt for F. friends, includinn several high misinterpreted both in Cuba and
Supplied. `Useful' Tidbits to
.U.S. and Aided Foes of
.,"Her Brother's Regime
By TATS SiMUC
Syicaal to The New York !tlm s
tt WASHINGTON, July 2-
~--y Juana Castro, the youngest sis-
( 1 , ter of Cuba's Premier Fidel
~~~ /// Castro, was described here to-
night as a provider of "useful
tidbits" of information to
United States operatives in
Cuba for the last four years.
The information aided the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency.
According to qualified in-
formants, Miss Castro had
turned against her brother and
his regime as early as the be-
ginning of 1960, and since then
she had devoted much time and
energy to hiding and helping
anti-Castro Cubans as well as
supplying United States intelli-
gence with occasional informa-
tion on general affairs.
However, qualified sources fa-
miliar for years with Miss Cas-
tro's activities emphasized to-
night that under no circum-
stances could she be regarded
as a "controlled agent" of the
Central Intelligence Agency or
any other United States Gov-
ernment organization.
The C.I.A. had no formal com-
Associated Press
Juana Castro Ruz
officials in the Castro regime, ?jo'1tSlde, and she therefore dc-
plcadirh with, them to put' her ~?? tided to remain in the country.
After the interruption of
in-touch with Premier Castro United States-Cuban diplomatic
so that she could apprise him relations early in 1961, Miss
of thi0 information. She told Castro became an occasional
friends that she did not believe supplier of "useful bits" of in-
that her brother Fidel was ac- formation to C. I. A. operatives
tually aware of the extent of in Cuba, it is understood.
the communism infiltration. 1; However, because her own
Early in 1960, Miss Castro,
who owned at that time a small
commercial radio station in
Havana developed personal con-
I'tacts with several members of
of only occasional And rather
Isuperficial bits of information,
it was said.
During that period, it was un-
derstoorl, Miss Castro had only
the United States Embassy inlja few opportunities to see her!
!:Havana. Ibrothcr, Fidel.. One of them oc-
i? This correspondent also main- ~tarred in 1961 when she encoun-
ttained occasional contacts with ii tercd him, stopped at a red light
ti
i
t
H
r
on nex
avana
ntersec
ectly:I at the
her at that time, and, di
or through mutual friends, hel,to her car. She jumped out of
was able to receive from Miss her car and entered his, and
Castro indications on how af-I~spoke to him for an hour, seek-
fairs were developing within the
Castro family and in regard to
developments within the regime.
Miss Castro was known early
in 1960 to have likewise de-
veloped contacts with the anti-
Costro underground organiza-
tion. On one occasion, in mid-
personal friends, she had warned )1-in1960, Miss Castro participated
a meeting with several
July, 1959, that her. brothersilminutes after leaving a houseilwere seeking to evade the secret
Fidel and Raul were leading where she and several Cuban~.police. At the same time she
Cuba toward Communism. Raulplotters were present, the two shad been active in assisting peo-
-
l
s were ar
!!Pie in leaving the island.
Castro is Armed Forces Minis- American officia
rested' by the. secret police a,ndi Her decision to leave Cuba
ter in his brother's Government, subsequently expelled I rom on June 20 was understood to
Those friends reported that~,Cuba. have been made early last
Miss Castro, after returning a In November, 1960, Miss Cas-!,month. She received permission
from a long trip into Cuba's trp told friends that she serious- N from the Havana Government
interior, especially in Las Villas ly considered leaving Cuba at! to do so, and flew out aboard
that time because she could noV a Cubana Airline aircraft in the
Province, told ? friends . with longer participate'in life under company of another' Cuban
alarm that old-line Communists her brother',s regime. woman.
kh
i over all the ril:y
!merit on Miss Castro. t ere Lz?
According to Miss Castro's?
NOTE: This article appeared on page one of-the Late City.Edition.
].QQ -jacccss to Premier Castro was
Gollth6l~ 0 lloxtrQnnely limited, the diRposud
the pro-Communist line. How-1
ever, she reported later, Dr.
Castro only nodded and gave no
replies.
After most of her friends left
Cuba for exile, Miss Castro ax-
ranged to have the' control of a
number of private homes in Ha-j
vana's residential districts where'
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