CNN’s Rick Sanchez Interviews Juanita Castro: “While you were still in Cuba and your brother was beginning a Marxist revolution, you were not only cooperating with the CIA, but you were protecting CIA agents who were inside Cuba at the time.”

CNN Newsroom Transcript

Anchor Rick Sanchez interviewed Cuban exile Juanita Castro, sister of Fidel and Raul Castro (3:35pm ET) – Wednesday, November 4, 2009. Please credit usage to CNN Newsroom with Rick Sanchez.

Link to the Video of the Interview

http://turner.tekgroup.com/video_display.cfm?video_id=4800

Highlighted Excerpt

On her cooperation with the CIA to provide information to the United States on the Cuban Revolution

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR:  Let me tell folks what you just told us.  While you were still in Cuba and your brother was beginning a Marxist revolution, you were not only cooperating with the CIA, but you were protecting CIA agents who were inside Cuba at the time.

Full Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR:  Let me start.

Juanita, (SPEAKING SPANISH).  Thank you very much for being with us.

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)?

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ: (SPEAKING SPANISH)?

Did you talk to the CIA in the early 1960s?

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  In Mexico?

CASTRO:  Si.

SANCHEZ: (SPEAKING SPANISH) — the conversations that you had with the CIA, did they take place after you left Cuba or while you were still in Cuba? (SPEAKING SPANISH)?

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  So, you were — this is amazing.  Let me tell folks what you just told us.  While you were still in Cuba and your brother was beginning a Marxist revolution, you were not only cooperating with the CIA, but you were protecting CIA agents who were inside Cuba at the time.

What did your brother say about this?  Did he know?  And how did he treat you? (SPEAKING SPANISH)

Didn’t he protest?

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  He didn’t know?  Your brother did not know?

CASTRO:  He didn’t know.

SANCHEZ:  He didn’t know?

CASTRO:  No.  No, no, no.

SANCHEZ:  How did you hide people?  Were you hiding them in your house?

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  So you were working with other embassies from around the world, the Swiss Embassy and others, European embassies, to try and work against your own brother.

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

Your brother never punished you for this?  Did he not know?  Was he not wise to it?

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  You say he didn’t only punish you, he punished all the Cuban people because of what he did.  But I’m wondering — I’m more interested in the personal story between you and your brother.  Did he — when was the last time you talked to him?

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  1963?  In Cuba?  You saw him in Cuba?

CASTRO:  In Cuba, si.  Yes.

SANCHEZ:  But in 1963, you were already living in Miami, weren’t you? (SPEAKING SPANISH) no?

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  Oh.  You came to Cuba…

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  Your last trip, you left Cuba in — let me just let the viewers know what you told me.  You left Cuba in 1964, so in 1963 was the last time you met with him.  That’s when your mother — and your mother was Lena (ph), right?

CASTRO:  Lena Ruz (ph).

SANCHEZ:  Lena Ruz (ph) was your mother.  And the last time you saw her was when you went for her funeral.  And you met with Fidel Castro.

Was that angry?  Was there any angry exchanged between you and your brother?

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  Yes.

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  When he arrived, you said you had a discussion with him, an argument?

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  So you went there to try to — you went there to negotiate for your sister who were living in Mexico at the time to — what did she want? (SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  She wanted to go back to Cuba.  And he didn’t let her. (SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  You asked him to try and find a way and he said he would not, is what I’m hearing you say.  Let me change the topic here real quick, because we have to move on and I don’t want to lose a lot of time.  Did you know in the early 1960s that the CIA wanted to kill your brother?

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  They didn’t tell you that? (SPEAKING SPANISH)

They never said to you, we want your help in taking out your brother?

CASTRO:  No.

SANCHEZ:  No?

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  So you would not — let me just tell the viewers what you said.  You would not have accepted that mission had they given it to you.  Why, because he’s year brother?  Even if you hate him and despise what he’s done, you would not be willing to go along with any plan to kill him?   Is that right?  Did you understand what I said in English?

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  That’s true.

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  You would never be willing to do that against your brothers or against any other human being.

So how do you feel when you hear people in Miami say they would love to see nothing more than to have your brother dead?  Does that hurt you?  Does it hurt your feelings?  After all, even though you disagree with him politically, he is still your brother.

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  You don’t listen to the news.

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  You believe the struggle is against the totalitarianism and Marxism, not against — not a personal thing against your brothers.  If Fidel Castro dries tomorrow, will you go to Cuba to be at his funeral?

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  You have never been able to go to Cuba, neither have many of the dignified people who live in south Florida, so — continue?

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  But Juanita, answer my question.  If your brother dies tomorrow, would you go to Cuba to be at his side at his funeral?  You?

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  “What good would it do me?  What good would it do me?”

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  “As a human being…” Go on.

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  “I would feel it because it’s going to hurt.  It’s going to hurt me no matter what, despite the politics, but…”

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  “I don’t think I’ll go to Cuba, no.  There are many Cubans who have had to go without that very difficult situation when they have lost loved ones because they haven’t been allowed to go to Cuba,” she says.

Hey, one more question.  Raul — (SPEAKING SPANISH)

Do you have a better relationship with Raul than you would with Fidel because he’s always been known to be known as a family guy, whereas Castro was more into his own self and his own ego?

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  “Since I was a little girl, I have always had a good relationship with all of them, but I’ve had a better relationship with Raul, even when I was a little girl,” she says.

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  “Because we were about the same age and we got along well.”

Do you talk to him? (SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO:  (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  No.  “1964 was the last time that I kissed and I hugged Raul, and I have never spoken to him or seen him since.”  What a story.

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  Juanita Castro, I hope — yes, me, too.  As a Cuban exile, I would like to see things work out as well.  Maybe he will be the way it works out.

Juanita Castro, muchas gracias. (SPEAKING SPANISH)

CASTRO: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

SANCHEZ:  Yes.

She says she hopes that it’s her brother, the younger brother, Raul, who’s able to bring about the changes in Cuba that have never come about, and that maybe that’s really his destiny.  Interesting words from somebody’s been wishing this for an awful long time.

Juanita Castro, the sister of Raul and Fidel Castro.

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

I am sure, Juanita, that the Castro government that literally monitors CNN has listened to your words and will likely respond to them soon.  We’ll be checking on that as well.

Once again, muchas gracias.  Thank you for being with us.

• Angel Reyes Interview About Child Safety In Cars On Good Morning Texas
• Interview with Children’s Author Lucia Gonzalez – Gonzalez’s latest children’s book, The Storyteller’s Candle, is dedicated to Pura Belpre
• Interview with Aurora Anaya-Cerda, owner of La Casa Azul Bookstore – NYC
• Interview: Ray Santos (Part 1) – Latin-jazz legends -saxophonist
• Democrats and Republicans deployed their heavy artillery Thursday in a heated congressional hearing to debate a bill seeking to end the travel ban to Cuba.
• A week after abruptly quitting his longtime job as a CNN television news host and commentator, Lou Dobbs said on Thursday he is considering career options including possible runs for the White House or U.S. Senate.
• Part of a Cuban blogger’s essay that advocates lifting the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba was read aloud at a House Foreign Affairs committee hearing. – Yoani Sánchez
• Lou Dobbs On “Daily Show”: Mariachi Band, CNN’s “Flavorless Gruel Of Journalism” (VIDEO)
• Obama answers top Cuban blogger – Yoani Sanchez
• Shakira Refuses To Do Interviews In Spanish
• Ironically, Latinos should be greatful to former CNN blowhard Lou Dobbs – commentary by Albor Ruiz
• 70% of Cuba’s Farmland Threatened by Erosion
• Who seriously wants the Cuban trade embargo?
• Belleza Q&A: Rose-Marie Castano
• Report: Cuba’s human rights as abused under Raúl Castro as Fidel
• Official VivirLatino Statement on Lou Dobbs Leaving CNN
• CNN was so sick of Lou Dobbs, it gave him an $8 million severance package to leave
• The Cuban ties that bind, 50 years on – Visiting her father’s homeland under newly relaxed travel restrictions is both invigorating and saddening.
• Poll: Cubans ‘frustrated’ over life in Cuba – A poll conducted in Cuba shows residents unhappy with their government and pessimistic about the economy.
• Interview with award-winning children’s author Lucia Gonzalez