Fabian Escalante Bücher

This account details the creative, bizarre, and disturbing attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, as recounted by Fabián Escalante, founder of the Cuban intelligence services. He provides a firsthand perspective on defending Castro against numerous assassination plots during the Cold War, employing lethal poisons, explosives, and other methods. The narrative unfolds like a political thriller, grounded in real events and extensive research, including multiple investigations in Cuba, interviews with participants, and documentary evidence. Escalante shares harrowing tales of deceit, such as FBI tactics involving moles who infiltrated the Cuban government with the aim of bombing military bases. He also recounts undercover attempts to deliver poison-laced cigars to Castro. The story spans locations from Washington, D.C., to New York, Miami, and Havana, revealing the intricate conspiracy to silence dissent against Castro. Rich in historical details about the CIA, Cuba, the communist movement, and U.S. officials, Escalante's narrative illustrates the lengths to which the CIA went to assassinate Castro and the determined efforts to protect him and his ideals.

“Escalante’s review of CIA covert operations against Cuba in the early years is to be welcomed, and should be widely read—and pondered.”—Noam Chomsky A unique view presented by the man responsible for countering innumerable assassination attempts against the Cuban leader. As Cuba’s former counterintelligence chief, Fabián Escalante reviews more than six hundred CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, a project code-named “Executive Action.” Although melodramatic and at times quite comical, these CIA plans were deadly serious—and -unconstitutional—as subsequent US government inquiries concluded, including the 1975 commission headed by Senator Frank Church. This book is the basis of a forthcoming Channel 4 (UK) documentary about attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. Published as part of the Secret War series. 

Expansivo recuento de los creativos y extraños intentos de asesinar a Fidel Castro, narrado en primera persona por Fabián Escalante, fundador de los servicios de seguridad cubanos. Su relato, en un estilo de novela de suspenso político, está repleto de detalles históricos sobre Fidel, Cuba, el movimiento comunista y las acciones de Estados Unidos para silenciar la rebelión. Este libro revela los peligros de luchar por un mundo mejor y cómo Castro y el movimiento revolucionario cubano amenazaban la hegemonía estadounidense. A través de 634 maneras de matar a Fidel, se presenta un inquietante retrato de cómo los impuestos de ciudadanos estadounidenses financian campañas para reprimir el disenso y debilitar movimientos en el Sur Global que buscan soberanía y justicia. Los planes de asesinato a lo largo de los años incluyeron venenos letales, explosivos plásticos, cigarros contaminados, granadas en espacios públicos, armas con telescopios, jeringas con veneno, lanzadores de misiles y cargas explosivas ocultas. Este relato no solo documenta intentos de homicidio, sino que también invita a reflexionar sobre las implicaciones de tales acciones en la lucha por un futuro mejor.

Fabián Escalante is a former head of Cuban counterintelligence and a respected and much-sought-after authority by US researchers on CIA activities. Following the Watergate scandal and the 1975 US Senate commission, which revealed an extensive program of CIA plots against foreign leaders, the US government established a congressional committee to re-examine the Kennedy assassination. As there was growing speculation about the role of anti-Castro exiles hostile to Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban government was asked to provide any information it might have. President Castro assigned Fabián Escalante to direct this Cuban investigation in 1978. Escalante was a key source for Oliver Stone’s movie JFK.Published as part of the series The Secret War.