Juanita Castro, the anti-communist sister of Cuban dictators Fidel and Raúl Castro, has passed away at the age of 90 in Miami, Florida.
María Antonieta Collins, a journalist and co-author of Juanita Castro's 2009 book, "Fidel and Raúl, My Brothers. The Secret History," announced her passing on Instagram, praising her as an exceptional woman and a dedicated advocate for her beloved Cuba.
"She was serious but always kind and respectful," Luis Zúñiga Rey, a former political prisoner in Cuba said on local Miami radio on Wednesday, NPR reports. "As the sister of the Cuban dictators, she always tried to keep her family background from interfering with her fellow Cubans here in Miami."
When her home became a refuge for anti-communists, Fidel Castro cautioned her against associating with the opposition. Undeterred, Juanita recounted a meeting with a CIA officer in Mexico City in 1961, expressing her refusal of monetary compensation and violence against her brothers or others.
Her collaboration with the CIA involved smuggling messages, documents, and funds concealed within canned goods back into Cuba. She communicated with her handlers through signals in the form of a waltz and an opera excerpt via shortwave radio.
“According to Ms. Castro, she told her original C.I.A. recruiter that she would collaborate on one condition: that she not be asked to help with any violent plot against her brothers. It was shortly after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban exiles, which the C.I.A. had organized. The agency was busily hatching plots to assassinate Castro, sometimes with Mafia help,” the New York Times explains.
In her book, Juanita Castro, a staunch opponent of communism, revealed her collaboration with the CIA, which began after the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
Remaining on the island during her mother's lifetime, Juanita believed it shielded her from Fidel's full retaliation. However, after her mother's death in 1963, complications in Cuba intensified.
In 1964, with Raúl's assistance, Juanita fled to Mexico, never seeing her brothers again. Upon arriving in Mexico, she voiced her concerns about Cuba's descent into an oppressive regime under her brothers' rule, criticizing their imposition of international communism.
Settling in Miami, Juanita led a low-key life, managing a Little Havana pharmacy and gaining respect within the Cuban-American community. She obtained U.S. citizenship in 1984.
Fidel Castro's death in 2016 at age 90, and Raúl Castro's retirement, mark the passing of an era in Cuban politics, leaving behind the legacy of the Castro regime.
Despite her passing, the Cuban government and media had made no mention of her death as of Wednesday.
