SISTER'S ATTACK BELIEVED SHAKING FAITH IN CASTRO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67B00446R000100130017-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 16, 2003
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: July 5, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

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WASHING IUN Z)LA
JUL
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ed For Release 2003/11104 :CIA-R1 P67* pA46R00010 14-
S ist e 's Attack ~ Beevd
MEXICO CITY, July 4 (AP).-Cuban exiles here feel that
Juanita Castro's defection will strengthen their cause and stir
confusion inside Cuba.
In the eyes of the exiles, the defection and statement of the
sister that worked closest with Prime Minister Fidel Castro in
his early days all but officially confirm what they have been
saying and should lend cre-
dence to. their future exposes.
Miss Castro, 31, came here
June 20. Last Wednesday she
took, to Mexican television with
charges of mass arrests, execu-
tions, and a shocking decline in
living conditions since her
brother's rise to power in 1959.
In Cuba, the exiles say, ru-
-mors buzz about the defection
and they at least are causing
confusion and perhaps some
.second thoughts among Cubans
,,about Fidel.
At Odds With Brother
Almost a dozen exile organi-
zations with a total member-
ship of about 3,000 are active in
Mexico. Because of Mexican
,law banning activities against
s "friendly country" they do
,not operate openly.
Exile leaders are not in
:agreement on all points, but
those in the know confirm that
Juanita's decision was not an
emotional and sudden one.
Most agree with reports that
she has been at odds with Fidel
for years, maybe since 1960.
They also confirm that Raul
Castro, Cuban armed forces
,minister and deputy prime
minister, has, saved her in the
.past. '
Helped Fidel Rise
Her background . is well
0 known here: She was the only
one of the four sisters who ac-
tively backed Fidel in his early
days, and as a result was ex-
iled by Dictator Fulgencia Ba-
tista. She worked with Fidel in
his early years, here and in
Cuba.
O But after he took power in
? Cuba, Fidel and Juanita began
having trouble. She did not ap-
-prove mass executions and ar=
rests, 'particularly of former
comrades. She 'tried to 'help
'many :e wmbers of Fidel's.July
26 organization escape prison
WASHINGTON STAR
L 51964
Juanita vs. Fidel
It Is not ? unknown in this world,
that some sisters turn against some,
brothers, and vice versa. But the story
of Juanita Castro's defection from Fidel
and his Cuban Red tyranny is in a class
by'itself.
The sensationalism. involved 13;
? merely incidental. Miss Castro, her eyes:
r, filled with tears, her voice quavering,
has read on a Mexico City televisiori
program a long statement unreservedly
~. denouncing Fidel and her other Red
r .brother, Raul, who seems in some ways.
F, to be even more repulsive. As she has
put It,. the regime headed by. these two,
is a regime of treason and betrayal. It
has made the colossal lie, subversion and
!"terrorism instruments of national policy.:
at home and abroad. It has sold out to
:the Soviets. It has outlawed all the basic
(human freedoms. It has brutalized
everyday living. It has made a ghastly
shambles of the country's economy. And
the Cuban people, as a result, "are
mailed to a cross of torment."
In Miss Castro's judgment the en-
tire hemisphere has reason to regard
this malignancy as a menace of the:
rfirst magnitude, and the Organization.
,of American States should act firmly
United States Central Intelli- `y
gence' Agency during thesel'~
years of conflict. Nor do they
agree w i t h Mr. Castro's
charges that her defection
statement was written by the
United States Embassy in Mex-
ico. Embassy spokesmen also
deny this.
But exiles do agree with Mr.
Castro's charges that he did
not let her "become a million-
airess." Mr. Castro said he did
not permit relatives to get rich
through special benefits and
privileges.
Exiles here contend she was
active in the insurance busi-
ness, in selling cattle, and in
other fields which annoyed
Fidel.
Raul Intervened
When he found she was also
helping anti-Castro revolution-
aries, the situation became
tense and only the intervention
of Raul saved her from serious
difficulties-perhaps, some say,
even execution. Execution of a
relative, exiles say, would have
been a sour note for Latins who
consider family ties basically
important.
Despite her troubles, she re-
mained active in Cuba and
made numerous trips abroad,
almost always carrying heavy
luggage. '
Her recent decision to break
with Castro, one source said,
was because of her "c::1-
science." Others say she saw
the handwriting on the wall.
There are some minor dis-
agreements: Some say her de-
fection is. a blind and that she
will actually act abroad as an
underground, agent. for Castro.
:against it. Never has a sister been more'.
severely-critical of a brother, and never:
i,with greater justification. The/historical:
:not spoiled by the report that she has
)long been in contact with the United
States Central Intelligence Agency-is
that Is can hardly fail to have a whole
# some impact on hemispheric public,
opinion, which in the past has too often.
taken a soft view of Fidel and been skep- a
tical of those who have charged him
and rightly-with grave crimes.
Juanita thus has 'rendered 'good
service in speaking out -as :. she has
against him. She has,done sowith au- ,
~xA q~}~ fie, knov/1-
?'Y'be world r
~ 3[ A
'it3ft
t .
rc..s
i
ishould listen
 JUL. 5 1964
Approved For Release 2003/11/04: CIA-RDP67B00446R000100130017-9
By HELEN DUDAR -
Juanita Castro's big brother announced his total
commitment to communism in 1961 on a day that _
she was later to describe to intimates as the blackest
Release 2003/11/04 :;G"04-67B0al 4 6RQ00100a30017-9
e crie ay. a frian ronnrie
'roars are feeble political weapons, 'however a d~
 IA[ 7130'lf4145P Ob` ~G~'ft3d r9f'efore
no one knoApOisobel:Fdka eiearg+la2ti *19'Ot!? : CI
In common with her brother, Juanita Castro shares * Castro's victory, she fried to return to from
a family strain of iron will and reckless bravery. Mexico and discovered that the State Dept. had
She dried her fears and, on an apparently heroic canceled her visa. Resourcefully, Juanita hired a
scale, set about undermining the Communist regime cab and rode across the Texas border in the trunk.
of Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba. The -authorities started deportation proceedings,
Until Juanita Castro fled-turning up. in Mexico but Juanita went back voluntarily.
City last week as Cuba's latest and most c-:lebraied With the revolution triumphant in Cuba,. Juanita
exile-she was one of the ,-,nfi-Fidelista under- launched two businesses, neither of which could
ground's most energetic agents. She fed inforrna survive the break with the U.. S. and the racy
tion to CIA operatives on the island. She found toward socialization: She set up an insurance agency
hiding places for men on the run, smuggled food and a movie supply firm. The American business
and supplies to them and helped them out of the man who furnished the capital for the second von-
country. fura journeyed to Havana to find, to his dismay,
"Juanita has actively helped hundreds to es- that he was not, as he had expected, head of the
cape," according to an exile leader in Miami. . firm. "You can'} be president," he recalls her felling
No one knows what this family conflict has cost him. "You're 'a Norte Americano. I will be president.
her; part of the price was marked on the hand. In any event, for a short time she reportedly
some face that appeared before Mexican TV cam- 'reaped rich profits selling movie cameras and pro--
eras last weak when she denounced her brother's - jectors to the island's schools until Premier Castro.
. regime. Fidel's junior by nearly-seven years, she learned about it. Breathing fire; he. stele- ed in and.:-;
-looked a good deal older than 31 despite the ;out an end to the business.
z+f .h
.youthfully -chic hair style and finely tailored suit.
To Castro, the flight of Juanita, albeit pro-
foundly painful," was "the price of being a revo- A few years later, Juanita turned up in ghat
" It would never have happened, he said `seemad to be a wholly uncharacteristic role: ~ro-
.lutionary.1
the other day in Havana, if he had been, "one of .' priotor of a boardinghouse for girls from the those rulers. who make millionaires out of their, versity of Havana. As far as the girls knew, for ;0
relatives." ' . a month in a rambling residence next rjoor 'fo a
Indeed, Juanita's mercenary instincts are not Chinese laundry they were being comfortably-
altogether irrelevant to her story. She has never: housed and fed by the Premier's sister.
married, and a Cuban admirer reports that she The landlady seemed to spend a lot of time i
has always been a somewhat formidable figure to in "the little cold room," an air-conditioned study'
potential suitors. Tall and big-boned, she appears in the back of the house, where Juanita read, played ;
to be, temperamentally, a woman born to dominate.. records of classical Spanish music and received vis.
.Her bent is managerial and her aspirations bluntly: its from nuns and priests of a nearby `church.
middle-class. She has been known to bait Fidel;! The quiet life proved to be a splendid cover :
.with the flat declaration that she opposed commu-! for underground work. One exile was hidden in
nism because "1 am a member of the bourgeoisie." the house for months before he could be sent along
an escape route. Another recalled the other day.?
The Castro clan worked hard to reach }hat that when he was trapp, d on the streets, a fugitive
with no place to go, "Juanita took me to a safe
status. Old Angel Castro, who died in 1956, was, house. I stayed there for a month, and-then she .,
an 1398 immigrant', from Spain. His first job was helped me into an embassy, for asylum."
hefting a pick and shovel for the United Fruit Co. On an island Juanita scribes as "a prison,"
Somehow, and it is unclear just how, he became.' if's unlikely that all of her activities escaped offi
owner of vast sugar cane lands in Mayari in Cuba's cial notice. Apparently she was tolerated because.
Oriente Province. she is Raul 'Castro's favorite sister-Raul is Fidel's
His wife was' an even more remarkable figure.
favorite brother and No. 2 man in the govern-
AAn unschooled domestic, -Ling Ruz Gonzales, who ment-because she was useful to high government,
il,ore seven children-three sons and four daugh- .-officials who wanted an escape route for their own:
ters-was tough, resourceful' and amazingly cam- , - friends' and because strong-willed old -Ling Castro'-:
petenf. In times of. trouble, she patrolled the fam- provided a maternal barrier to a messy public dis
ily Tinto on horseback with two 45s in 'holsters play of family ideological differences.
strapped around .her waist: Ultimately, she managed The old lady died last November. After the ~
the place and the, family. Ambitious for her chil- 'I funeral, Juanita traveled down to the Castro farm-:
dren, she saw to if that each was sent to.Havana house on what, depending on the source, was either
for a good educafion,' a sentimental or a material mission. One says she'
Juanita-baptized Juana-spent her classroom went, to collect the family papers, the other that`
years in an Ursuline convent boarding school in she hastened to sell off the family cattle . before:
the elegant Miramar section. She emerged and re- the state stepped in anal appropriated all the hold.:;
mained a devout Catholic. Among the beneficiaries ings.
of her later underground work were nuns she helped Fidel reportedly went after her, in 'a flaming
spirit out of Cuba.' ' rage, and she vanished into hiding until he cooled
After finishing school, Juanita returned to off. After that, even Raul couldn't shield her indef
'Mayari to help run the finca. Later, venturing into i ifely from the likelihood of official retaliation; he
business, she opened a little rural movie house ;s presumed to have paved the way for her open
departure-with nearly two dozen pieces of lug-
'
b
J
near
y.
By the time she was 24, Fidel was in the hills, gage-from Havana by air on June 20.
16; Her future plans are uncertain, but a fellow;
waging guerrilla war against Cuban dictator Sa-
tista, and Juanita was a fervent Fidelista..She spent enfle, in Miami, who spoke to her by telephone
after the Mexican Telecast, had no -doub} at all;
months scour ~ ~ct Fr?~?~'3~9 1 ~2~03/."k'1"/ 4 4ArRP ~2j; AA$QlDIAQQI17Ad, spend;
.Mexico for fun .s to support the gat, her time--all har. time---"fighting ?Fidel:'; 1