“A conclusive, ground-breaking portrait, based on firsthand sources, of how the Cuban strongman . . . ran circles around the CIA.” —Daily Beast In Castro’s Secrets, intelligence analyst and Cuba expert Brian Latell offers an unprecedented view of Fidel Castro in his role as Cuba’s supreme spymaster. Based on interviews with high level defectors from Cuba’s intelligence and security services—including some who have never spoken on record before—Latell reveals long-buried secrets of Fidel’s nearly 50-year reign. While the CIA grossly underestimated his capabilities, Castro built one of the best and most aggressive intelligence systems in the world. Their sophisticated network ran moles and double agents who penetrated the highest levels of American Institutions. They also carried out numerous assassinations—some against foreign leaders. Latell also sheds new light on the CIA’s deplorable plots against Cuba—including previously obscure schemes to assassinate Castro—and presents shocking new conclusions about what Fidel actually knew of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

"In this riveting Cold War history, highly acclaimed author Brian Latell offers us a new and surprising look at Fidel Castro. Latell draws his narrative on personal interviews with high level defectors from Cuba's intelligence, many of whom have not spoken out for over nearly five decades. The result is a vivid and revelatory account that revises our understanding of how Fidel operated, what his goals were, and how he imagined the future for his tiny island nation. Latell takes us from from the crimes Fidel allegedly committed as a youth in the anti-Battista movement, to how quickly he built up an intelligence system that rivaled the Soviet Union's KGB and Britain's M15 in effectiveness, and how that translated into a feud with JFK's administration and the CIA, and the ultimate confrontation during the Cuban Missile Crises that brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust"--

Cuba's former counterintelligence chief reviews more than 600 CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro - a project code-named Executive Action. Although melodramatic and at times almost comical, the plans were both drawn up in deadly earnest and entirely unconstitutional, as subsequent US government enquiries concluded, including the 1975 Commission headed by Senator Frank Church.

The 1967 secret assassination report by the CIA Inspector General

The fantastic story of the U.S.'s undeclared war against Cuba, including an expanded section on the CIA's role in the assassination of JFK. "Deadly Secrets is a warning as well as terribly exciting reading".--Studs Terkel. National radio and TV coverage.

This is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of the extraordinary Castro brothers and the dynastic succession of Fidel's younger brother Raul. Brian Latell, the CIA analyst who has followed Castro since the sixties, gives an unprecedented view into Fidel and Raul's remarkable relationship, revealing how they have collaborated in policy making, divided responsibilities, and resolved disagreements for more than forty years--a challenge to the notion that Fidel always acts alone. Latell has had more access to the brothers than anyone else in this country, and his briefs to the CIA informed much of U.S. policy. Based on his knowledge of Raul Castro, Latell makes projections on what kind of leader Raul will be and how the shift in power might influence U.S.-Cuban relations.

A revelatory memoir of the 17 years Juan Sanchez spent as one of Fidel Castro's personal soldiers, in his innermost circle

The author, Theresa Castro, writes from her personal experiences about her journey to self-discovery. Her journey began as a result of her unhappiness and frustration with her career, relationship and everyday life. In addition, she experienced an end to a ten year relationship that caused her to search for a deeper meaning to her life. She discovered that there are many self-help books yet they are written by individuals who lack the personal experience of the topic of which they are writing. Moreover, many of these books lack the thought provoking questions and activities necessary for significant change to occur. As a result of these findings, Theresa Castro shares the insight that she gained through the writing of The Dark Before the Dawn: 70 Secrets to Self-discovery. The Dark Before the Dawn: 70 Secrets to Self-discovery is a road map designed to release oneself from an unhappy and unfulfilled life. The author gives a step-by-step approach of the changes that she made in order to transform her own life after a painful and challenging time. The chapters are structured to assist the readers move beyond despair and get what they want out of life.

History is being made in U.S.-Cuban relations. Now in paperback and updated to tell the real story behind the stunning December 17, 2014, announcement by President Obama and President Castro of their move to restore full diplomatic relations, this powerful book is essential to understanding ongoing efforts toward normalization in a new era of engagement. Challenging the conventional wisdom of perpetual conflict and aggression between the United States and Cuba since 1959, Back Channel to Cuba chronicles a surprising, untold history of bilateral efforts toward rapprochement and reconciliation. William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh here present a remarkably new and relevant account, describing how, despite the intense political clamor surrounding efforts to improve relations with Havana, negotiations have been conducted by every presidential administration since Eisenhower's through secret, back-channel diplomacy. From John F. Kennedy's offering of an olive branch to Fidel Castro after the missile crisis, to Henry Kissinger's top secret quest for normalization, to Barack Obama's promise of a new approach, LeoGrande and Kornbluh uncovered hundreds of formerly secret U.S. documents and conducted interviews with dozens of negotiators, intermediaries, and policy makers, including Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter. They reveal a fifty-year record of dialogue and negotiations, both open and furtive, that provides the historical foundation for the dramatic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba ties.

Secret Missions to Cuba reveals new insights into Fidel Castro's personality, details secret missions to Cuba under the Carter and Reagan administrations to negotiate the restoration of US-Cuban relations and provides an in-depth look at Miami's exile community since 1959. This groundbreaking story is told through Bernardo Benes - a lawyer who joined the refugee exodus from Castro's Cuba in 1960. Benes quickly became one of the leading voices advocating the integration of Cubans into the city's Anglo, old-boy power structure. In 1978, Cuban Intelligence recruited him as an emissary between the Carter administration and Cuba. He did the same for the CIA under Reagan in the early 1980s. In all, Benes made seventy-five secret trips to meet with high-ranking Cuban officials, spending about 150 hours face-to-face with Fidel Castro. The 1978 dialogue resulted in the release of 3,600 Cuban political prisoners and the right for Cuban exiles to visit family members on the island. Rather than being received as a hero on his return to Miami, however, Benes was branded a traitor by the Miami Cuban media for having dealt personally with Castro. His career ruined, he became a pariah in the community. Secret Missions to Cuba also examines the motives of those who vilified Benes and explores why so many Cubans in Miami have permitted themselves to be silenced - much in the same ways, Levine claims, as Cubans under Castro. But what differentiates Levine's book from any other is that he is literally breaking new ground by documenting these top-secret missions to Cuba. Furthermore, he has the corroboration of key players like Ambler Moss, who was the Ambassador to Panama under Carter; Bob Pastor, who was Carter's Latin American advisor on the National Security Council, and General Vernon A. Walters, the former Deputy Director of the CIA. The twenty-five photos in the book, some which depict Bernardo Benes with Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy and, of course, Fidel Castro, emphasize the importance of Benes' story internationally.