The Many Failed Assassination Attempts on Fidel Castro

What It Covers

The CIA conducted hundreds of plots against Fidel Castro from 1960 through the 1990s, ranging from poisoned cigars and explosive mollusks to mafia contracts and hallucinogenic sprays, yet all failed due to strong Cuban security and flawed strategic assumptions.

Key Questions Answered

• •Assassination count vs. reality: Cuba's intelligence chief claimed 634–638 attempts, but the U.S. Senate's Church Committee confirmed only 8 serious CIA plots between 1960–1965. The gap exists because Cuba counted unexecuted ideas and proposals, not just physically carried-out operations.
• •CIA-Mafia alliance: The CIA paid organized crime figures Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana the equivalent of $1.2 million today, plus legal immunity, to kill Castro. Mobsters had pre-revolutionary Havana casino ties and existing contacts, but none of their poison or shooting plans were ever executed.
• •Presidential escalation pattern: Reagan's administration led all others with 197 assassination plots against Castro, followed by Nixon's 184. Kennedy had 42, Johnson 72, and Carter 64. The plots continued despite Gerald Ford's 1976 executive order explicitly banning U.S. government-sanctioned political assassinations.
• •Flawed strategic logic: Every assassination plot shared a core false assumption — that killing Castro would collapse Cuban communism. By the early 1960s, Cuba had entrenched institutions, an effective security apparatus, and Soviet backing, meaning the regime would have survived Castro's death regardless.