THE younger sister and outspoken critic of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died in Miami aged 90.
Juanita Castro abandoned the Caribbean island for Florida in 1964 after accusing her brother of turning it into “an enormous prison surrounded by water”.
EPAJuanita Castro has died[/caption]
She expressed sadness over Fidel’s death in November 2016 but insisted she would not be returning to Cuba in her lifetime.
Journalist María Antonieta Collins, co-author of Juanita’s memoir, announced her passing on Instagram yesterday, writing: “Today Juanita Castro went ahead of us on the road to life and death, an exceptional woman, a tireless fighter for the cause of her Cuba that she loved so much.”
She said her funeral would be private.
Fidel’s sister went into exile in the States after spending several months in Mexico.
She obtained US citizenship in 1984 and opened a chemist’s in Miami where she worked for years before selling it in 2006.
She railed against the Cuban system and the work of Fidel and his brother Raul for decades and even collaborated with the CIA, under the alias Donna, in plans to overthrow them.
In her memoirs, ‘Fidel and Raul, My Brothers: The Secret History’, she claimed she had suffered in exile more than others, saying she was considered a deserter in Cuba and a persona non grata for many in Miami because she was a Castro.
She is thought to have died of natural causes at a hospital in her adopted home city.
Juanita was one of four sisters of Fidel Castro and was supportive in the late 1950s of her brother’s effort to overthrow former president Fulgencio Batista, playing an active role in the Cuban revolution by buying weapons for the movement that went on to become the political party led by her brother.
Fidel and Raul’s sale of a family plantation, which coincided with Juanita’s feelings of betrayal at the growing influence of Cuban communists in the government, led to a rift with her siblings that never healed.