638 Ways to Kill Castro

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638 Ways to Kill Castro is a Channel 4 documentary film, broadcasted on 28 November 2006, which tells the story of some of the numerous attempts to kill Cuba's leader Fidel Castro.

The film reveals multiple methods of assassination, from exploding cigars to femme fatales; a radio station rigged with noxious gas to a poison syringe posing as an innocuous ballpoint pen. Fabian Escalante, the former head of Cuban Intelligence, the man who has had the job of protecting Castro for many of the 48 years he’s been in power, alleges that there were over 600 plots and conspiracies known to Cuban agents, all dreamt up to end the life of the “red menace”. Some were perpetrated by the CIA, especially during the first half of the 1960s. From the seventies onwards, the attempts were most often made by Cuban exiles who had been trained by the CIA shortly after Castro took power in 1959.

John F. Kennedy even asked the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming, for his advice on how to oust Castro.

On the trail of Castro’s would-be killers, the filmmakers meet a series of would-be assassins – several are also accused terrorists, still living in America. Orlando Bosch, accused by many of being the greatest terrorist in the hemisphere, is found living peacefully in his Miami home, surrounded by an adoring family. Curiously, both Bosch and his companion in arms and fellow accused terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, turn out to be keen amateur landscape painters.

The film also contains extensive material shot with Antonio Veciana, the Cuban exile who got close to killing Castro on three occasions, spanning 17 years. He is found running a marine supplies store in Miami. All these men, the film reveals, were supported and funded by the United States. At one point, staggeringly, the CIA even sought the help of the Mafia in the hope they would be able to succeed where so many others had failed. Other characters are Félix Rodríguez, the CIA operative who took part in three planned assassination attempts against Castro, and gave the order for Che Guevara's execution in 1967 in Bolivia, and Enrique Ovares, possibly the first man to make an attempt on Castro's life after he took power.

In 2006, The documentary was in the center of a controversy sourrounding US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, In it the Miami Republican -- recently tapped to become the top Republican on the House International Relations Committee -- says, ``I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro and any leader who is oppressing the people. The clip of the video made it's way to the popular website Youtube where the media quickly picked up the story. The public has then questioned Ros-lehtinen morals and suitability for her job. She replied by saying the clip was Spliced together and that it was taken out of context; but then she also stated that she will celebrate Castro's death either by natural causes or an assassin.

Although the making of the documentary was initially welcomed by the Cuban authorities, it is now banned in Cuba because it contains footage of a policeman from the Fulgencio Batista regime being executed by firing squad which shows the revolutionary government in a bad light.^[1]

The sub-text of the film is a comment on the contemporary War on Terrorism. It is notable that whereas accused and even acknowledged terrorists who have made common cause with the CIA in the past live happily in the United States, individuals with often very sketchy connections with latter-day terrorism have ended up incarcerated without trial at Guantanamo Bay.

Exec Producer: Peter Moore.
Director: Dollan Cannell.
Commissioning Editor: Meredith Chambers.