On 22 November 1963, CIA Special Affairs Section head Desmond FitzGerald was in Paris. The man he was to meet was Rolando Cubela. Cubela had been a member of the Cuban Revolutionary Directorate during the late 1950s, and fought alongside Che Guevara at the battle of Santa Clara. He seemed to be in and out of favor with the Cuban government, and had been trying to defect since the Bay of Pigs invasion. Two and a half months earlier, he had presented himself to the CIA in Brazil as a potential assassin. FitzGerald was meeting him to set up the murder of Fidel Castro.
Cubela had stated that he wanted to meet Bobby Kennedy personally, indicating that he knew enough about Operation Mongoose to know who was in charge. The request had been denied, but FitzGeraldâ?? a friend of both Kennedy brothersâ?? told Cubela he spoke for Bobby.
FitzGerald gave Cubela a fountain pen fitted with a concealed needle, and filled not with ink but with Blackleaf 40. The toxin was designed to kill. Cubela was to return to Cuba, where the CIA had planned to deliver him a rifle as well. Before 22 November, though, counterintelligence agents within the CIA had doubts about Cubela. After his first contact two months earlier, a reporter for the Associated Press had spoken to Fidel Castro privately at a party in Havana. Fidel had told him he knew the American government was planning to kill him. â??United States leaders should think that if they assist in terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, they themselves will not be safe,â? he said.
Perhaps the timing of Fidelâ??s remark was a coincidence. Perhaps Cubela was a double agent, and had told Fidel what was afoot. There was enough circumstantial evidence for the counterintelligence agent on FitzGeraldâ??s team to warn that Cubela was â??insecureâ? before the meeting. FitzGerald went ahead with the rendezvous anyway, but, when he left Cubela, he was greeted with a piece of shocking news. His friend and president, John F. Kennedy, had just been shot.
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