November 22, 1963Primary source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Poison Pen and the Day Kennedy Died

On the timeline · around November 22, 1963 ·

What happened

The CIA cultivated a high-level Cuban official, code-named AM/LASH (later identified as Rolando Cubela), to kill Castro. On November 22, 1963 — the very day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas — a CIA officer in Paris handed Cubela a poison pen fitted with a fine hypodermic needle.

Why it matters

The extraordinary coincidence — a CIA plot to kill Castro advancing at the exact hour Kennedy was murdered — has fueled speculation and investigation ever since.

Sources

NBC News. Fidel Castro and the CIA's 7 Most Bizarre Assassination Attempts (2016) · General source
U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations. Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) (1975) · Primary source

Part of a timelineThe Plots to Kill Castro32 events · Exploding cigars, Mafia hitmen, a poisoned milkshake, a booby-trapped seashell, a lethal pen handed over the day JFK died — and decades of exile plots after. The CIA's documented campaign to assassinate Fidel Castro, and the man who outlived it all.View all →