Germ warfare, a long-standing war against Cuba

Details of the U.S.-led biological warfare against Cuba came to light with the declassification of the results of the U.S. Senate Special Commission that looked into the illegal actions of the CIA in 1975 and other documents which proved that Commander in Chief Fidel Castro’s allegations were right.

Fidel publicly accused the U.S. on June 1, 1964, when he revealed to the world the use of those means against the Cuban people, economy and leaders. A plot to eliminate him had already begun in the summer of 1962, when Sidney Gottlieb, a CIA chemist, contaminated a diving suit that the Cuban leader was expected to wear.

According to the plan, James Donovan, a lawyer who was negotiating the release of the Bay of Pigs mercenaries, would present it to Fidel as a gift, but he is said to have refused or found an excuse not to deliver the suit that would infect the user with tuberculosis and with Madura foot, which causes death following the destruction of the victim’s tissue.

The 1975 Senate Special Committee report noted: "In November 1962 a proposal was developed for a broader program of further clandestine actions to overthrow Castro. Assistant to the President, Richard Goodwin, and General Edward Lansdale, both of whom had experience in counterinsurgency operations, played key leadership roles in creating this program, which was called Operation Mongoose (Mongoose).

"General Lansdale's program review for Project Cuba, dated February 20, 1962, included a basic plan of action, phase four had as one of its components: attack on regime cadres, including key leaders. This should be a special target operation. In this the CIA's operations with defectors are vital. Gangster elements can provide the best potential recruiting for actions against G-2 officers. Block technicians should be added to the target list. CW (Chemical Warfare) agents should be taken fully into consideration."

They were intended to "destroy crops with biological or chemical weapons, and change the regime before the next congressional elections in November 1962," the text pointed out.

No time, money, effort or human resources were to be spared to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. Actions to this end included the introduction of viruses and pests against crops, livestock, poultry, and swine production. Thus, the pathogenic Newcastle virus, which eliminated almost the entire poultry population, African swine fever, sugar cane rust and tobacco blue mold, among others, appeared. It is worth remembering that in the 1970s and 1980s many people contracted hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, dysentery and dengue, which left in their wake 158 deaths, including children, as part of the damage inflicted on the Cuban people by U.S. biological terrorism.

On June 1, 1964, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro revealed what would be the beginning of more than half a century of germ attacks by all U.S. administrations against the Leader of the Revolution, other top figures, as well as the people and the economy of the Island, at the cost of the lives of many Cubans and millions of dollars in material losses.