1960: UN gardens could be dressed in olive green uniform

Since August 1960, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and members of the U.S. Mafia had been preparing one of the first assassination plots against Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, among the more than 600 that would be attempted in the following 40 years, on the occasion of his trip to the United Nations headquarters in New York.

They had planned to detonate a bomb in the tribune where the Cuban Prime Minister would speak at an act of solidarity in Central Park in that American city, but this plan was neutralized when Walter Martino, a security policeman in charge of installing the explosives, was arrested at the last minute by a security policeman who was guarding the event.

One might think that only a gang of thugs and madmen would be capable of carrying out an assassination against a Head of State invited by the UN, but this terrorist act had the green light from the high circles of government although it would possibly kill dozens of U.S. citizens, including government officials, security agents and police officers of the crowded city.

Multiple documents prove those plans against Fidel when they were made public during the investigations carried out from 1973 to 1975 by the Senate Select Committee, which inquired about the activities of the intelligence community and in particular the plans to assassinate foreign political leaders.

Prime Minister Fidel Castro arrived in New York on September 18, 1960 to speak for the first time before the 15th Session of the General Assembly and although he was not unaware of the danger he was running, he always believed that he had to take the risk to make Cuba's voice heard in that institution, in the face of the campaigns of lies and defamation against the Revolution, which had been prepared by the American propaganda matrices and echoed by the vast majority of the world's media.

Less than 24 hours after his arrival on U.S. territory, the management of the Shelburn Hotel, where the members of the Cuban delegation were staying, in a possibly unprecedented gesture against a foreign leader and his delegation in that city, notified them that they had to leave that place and robbed them of 5,000 dollars deposited as a guarantee of payment and no important hotel facility agreed to accept them under pressure from the government.

But the management of the building was not acting on its own initiative; it is known now that the whole climate of provocation was governed by the CIA methodology known as "character assassination", which it applied to its adversaries and which in this case was aimed at breaking the morale and resistance of Fidel and his comrades so that they would renounce their initiatives in the face of such conflicts and dangers, which would justify the media campaign of defamation.

Fidel's reaction, far from all the expected forecasts, was to immediately order the purchase of tents and the packing of backpacks to go to the UN headquarters and camp in its gardens. Later everything was solved, because the revolutionary leader decided to accept the solidarity offer of Love Woods, owner of the Theresa Hotel, a humble facility in the black neighborhood of Harlem.

In that lodging, it was difficult for Fidel and the rest of the entourage to rest because the center was surrounded by crowds cheering the leader, which made the young Cuban revolutionary gain even more prestige and recognition from the American people.
Even the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, went to the place to greet the Cuban delegation and offer his solidarity.

On September 26, 1960, the then Cuban Prime Minister delivered his memorable speech at the 15th General Assembly of the United Nations, in which he said "the case of Cuba is the case of all underdeveloped and colonized countries", thus prefiguring what would become the movement of the Non-Aligned Countries, and denounced how the imperialists, with the US at the head, exploited and repressed the nationalist and revolutionary movements of the nations of the Third World.

He referred to the imperialist aggressions and the essence of a Yankee colony that Cuba had been since the establishment of the republic in 1902, under the meddling of U.S. troops who frustrated the independence process and imposed the Platt Amendment appendix to its constitution.

Fidel Castro strengthened his stature as a world revolutionary leader and won his battle in New York, which was evidenced in his speech that raised thunderous applause, as rarely had occurred at the headquarters of that organization:

"Disappear the philosophy of dispossession, and the philosophy of war will have disappeared! Disappear the colonies, disappear the exploitation of countries by monopolies, and then humanity will have reached a true stage of progress!", the speaker sentenced.