Honor Guard Escorts President John F. Kennedy's Casket from the White House to the U.S. Capitol, Nov. 24, 1964


German Documentary 'Proves' Castro Killed Kennedy

For fear of provoking another confrontation with the Soviets like the Cuba missile crisis, official Washington failed to give voice to what a recent documentary now shows: that Fidel Castro had John F. Kennedy murdered. According to this op-ed article from Ecuador's El Comercio, the German documentary shows that Castro was merely responding to the many documented attempts by the Kennedy Administration to murder him.

By Carlos Alberto Montaner

Translated by Richard Hauenstein

January 17, 2006

El Comercio - Home Page (Spanish)    

I usually scorn conspiracy theories of history, but sometimes, one must surrender before the evidence. With abundant proof in hand, German documentary filmmaker Wilfried Huismann has credited responsibility for the assassination of North American President John F. Kennedy to Fidel Castro.
[Read Der Spiegel of Germany's Take]

The documentary, entitled "Rendezvous with Death: Castro and Kennedy," recently shown for the first time on German public television, brings to light numerous new documents and testimony; but the most conclusive elements are a report by the Mexican intelligence services, classified under the title "Oswald-Kennedy," in which it is confirmed that in Mexico in September, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald received $6,500 from the Cuban Secret Service as payment for him to carry out a planned crime. For his part, Oscar Marino, a former official of the Cuban G-2 Intelligence Service, now an old man in exile, corroborated the investigation of the German filmmaker: "He (Oswald) volunteered to execute him (Kennedy), and we used him."

This is not the first time that this hypothesis has been circulated. Jackie Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, without a doubt two of the people closest to the President, firmly believed this, but kept their certainty to themselves in order to avoid provoking another incident with the Soviet Union. If in that moment they had raised their suspicions, given the indignation of the North American people, it would have been inevitable that they would have invaded Cuba and punished the guilty parties; but the quivering White House didn't want another dangerous confrontation with the Kremlin like the one in October, 1962 that had placed the planet on the verge of a nuclear war. Bobby Kennedy, then the U.S. Attorney General, certainly also shared the same suspicions, but neither would he agree to accuse Castro.

When all is said and done, it appears that, as he notified the Brazilian ambassador only a few days before the assassination, the Cuban dictator was responding to plans to assassinate him, organized by the President's brother with the help of the [Italian] Mafia. [CIA Inspector-General's Report on U.S. Plots to Kill Castro, May, 1967].

Since this shameful hiding of information, as much in Washington as in Havana, two strategies have developed for the manipulation of public opinion: In Washington, they restrained and diverted FBI investigators, especially from Mexican sources, and they created the Warren Commission, doling out to them partial and limited information in order to persuade the world that the death of the President of the United States had been the isolated and solitary act of a disturbed and uncontrollable madman.

In Havana, Fabián Escalante, the Cuban intelligence official who traveled to Dallas on the day of the assassination, perhaps to monitor the complex operation, puts forth the theory that there were other shooters who fired at Kennedy. Escalante pins the crime on Herminio Díaz, an exile and former companion of Castro in the Cuban Insurrection Union in the late 1940's, supposedly accompanied in the murder of the great man by Eladio del Valle, another exile who also has a disturbing history.

Naturally, by the time Escalante's alibi appeared, Díaz as well as del Valle had been eliminated by the Cuban intelligence services in a way that did not allow them to defend themselves from the accusation. It's just that there is no such thing as the perfect crime. In the end, the guilty are almost always discovered. This time it looks like the Germans found them.

NEWSREEL FROM 1962: CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS: Adlai Stevenson at UN speaks on Cuban Missile Crisis; Castro builds up defenses in Cuba; Cameras installed in airplane, photos show details, MiG-21 jets, OAS endorsed US in 20-0 vote, Dean Rusk shown at this meeting; Guantanamo base marines arrive; UN building exterior, Adlai Stevenson speaks, October 25, 1962, 00:05:00, MEMRI

Spanish Version Below

Castro y Kennedy

Por Carlos Alberto Montaner

Desprecio las teorías conspirativas de la historia, pero a veces hay que rendirse ante la evidencia. Con abundantes pruebas en la mano, el documentalista alemán Wilfried Huismann ha atribuido a Fidel Castro la responsabilidad del asesinato del presidente norteamericano John F. Kennedy.

El documental, titulado ‘Cita con la muerte. Castro y Kennedy’, estrenado en la televisión pública alemana, aporta diversos documentos y algunos testimonios novedosos, pero los elementos más contundentes son un informe de la inteligencia mexicana, clasificado como ‘Oswald-Kennedy’, en el que se afirma que en septiembre de 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald recibió en México seis mil quinientos dólares de los servicios secretos cubanos como ayuda para que llevara a cabo el crimen proyectado. Por su parte, Oscar Marino, ex oficial del G-2 cubano, ya anciano y exiliado, corroboró la pesquisa del cineasta alemán: "'Se ofreció para ejecutarlo, y nosotros lo utilizamos"'.
No es la primera vez que se maneja esa hipótesis. Jackie Kennedy y Lyndon Johnson, sin duda dos de las personas más cercanas al presidente, lo creían firmemente, pero ocultaron esa certeza para no provocar otro incidente con la URSS. Si en ese momento revelaban sus fundadas sospechas, dada la indignación de la sociedad norteamericana, era inevitable invadir Cuba y castigar al culpable, pero la estremecida Casa Blanca no quería otra peligrosa confrontación con el Kremlin semejante a la que en octubre de 1962 había puesto al planeta al borde de una guerra nuclear. Bobby Kennedy, entonces Fiscal General, seguramente también compartía la misma sospecha, pero tampoco le convenía acusar a Castro.

A fin de cuentas, parece que el dictador cubano, como le advirtió al embajador brasilero en La Habana pocos días antes del crimen, estaba respondiendo de esa manera a los intentos de asesinato organizados por el hermano del presidente con la ayuda de la mafia.
A partir de esta censurable ocultación de información  tanto en Washington como en La Habana se desarrollan dos estrategias para manipular a la opinión pública. En Washington se frena y desvía de las pistas a los investigadores del FBI, especialmente de las fuentes mexicanas, y se crea la Comisión Warren, dotándola de una información parcial y limitada, para persuadir al mundo de que la muerte del presidente de EE.UU. había sido la obra aislada y solitaria de un loco peculiar e incontrolable.

En La Habana, Fabián Escalante, el oficial de inteligencia que viajó a Dallas el día del asesinato, acaso para monitorear la operación elabora la teoría de que hay otros tiradores que le disparan a Kennedy. Escalante imputa el crimen a Herminio Díaz, un exiliado, ex compañero de Fidel Castro en la Unión Insurreccional Cubana a fines de los años cuarenta, supuestamente acompañado en el magnicidio por Eladio del Valle, otro exiliado también de inquietantes antecedentes.
Naturalmente, cuando apareció la coartada de Escalante, tanto Díaz como Del Valle habían sido liquidados por los servicios cubanos, de manera que no podían defenderse de la acusación. Sólo que: no hay crimen perfecto. Al final casi siempre los culpables son descubiertos. Esta vez parece que los alemanes dieron con ellos.