When Love and Espionage Collide: The CIA's First Attempt to Kill Castro

The year is 1959.The CIA is confronting a new enemy: Fidel Castro, the man who threatens to spread communism across America's backyard. The fear for the United States was that a Cuban-style revolution would explode throughout Latin America. The US president Dwight Eisenhower wants him assassinated and the CIA is given a job but they need someone who can break through his tight security. Their unlikely weapon: A 19-year-old woman named Marita Loren. She was the Natural Choice because she could get through all of the protective layers that Fidel had around him and she could get into his bed. This is the story of one of the most extraordinary CIA operations of them all. It will involve the mafia, a Watergate burglar, and Castro's Lover. It is the most bizarre CIA assassination attempt of them all.

Marita Loren with her Boyfriend- Fidel Castro; 1959

It begins with a chance encounter that took place in the port of Cuba's capital city, Havana. A 19-year-old German-American woman named Marita Loren is on the deck of her father's Cruise liner the 'MS Berlin.' 

"I was on board the ship, my father was sleeping. I saw the launch coming and it was coming closer and closer and then finally they stood up and waved and I saw that they all had guns and all wore green uniforms and had beards. The launch came up very close and he (Fidel) just held on to the railing. He looked up and I looked down. He said,  "I'm coming up." I said no and he said yes and I said well... who are you? And he just looked at me and he said, "this is Commandante Fidel Castro."- Marita Loren

Fidel Castro is the most notorious revolutionary in the world. Just one month earlier at the age of 32, he had seized power in Cuba. In January 1959, he overthrew an American-backed dictator and turned his people against the United States. As the new prime minister of Cuba, he forms a close economic and military alliance with the Soviet Union. Now his friendship with the Soviets and his desire to spread his Communist Revolution throughout Latin America is sending shock waves back to the United States.

"We didn't realize it was a threat right in the United States backyard until it was too late. We had to focus our attention because this had the potential to become a communist base in our hemisphere. Cuba is only 90 miles away from the American Coast; so close to the United States and was potentially a place where missiles could be launched directly against the United States."- The CIA

What a strategic advantage! President Eisenhower recognizes that Castro is a serious emerging threat to the US that needs to be dealt with but the Young Marita knows nothing about this man who's about to come on board her father's ship. Fidel's flirtatious eyes immediately attracted the 19-year-old. Within a blink of an eye, Marita Loren is swept away by Castro's charisma.

"...and I saw his eyes and that was it. Lost in love, I fell in love and that's the first time I kissed him and then uh my father stormed in and that picture of me sitting at the table with the first officer and Fidel and and immediately I pulled my hand away so papa wouldn't see."

MS Berlin: Marita Loren Father's Cruise Ship

Marita's father invites Castro to stay for dinner that evening before he takes his ship and his daughter back to New York.

"I remember standing on the top deck when we pulled out of the harbor and missing him and feeling terrible, I've got to see him again."

As soon as Marita returns to the city, Fidel Castro calls and invites her back to Cuba, marking the beginning of a passionate lover affair.

"I hadn't even unpacked and he said, "how are you, I miss you," and with his bad English asked me to come back. 

Fidel I sent her an airplane and she ended up back in Havana with the same suitcase she hadn't unpacked. A week later, Marita leaves her family's ship and moves into Castro's penthouse apartment on the 24th floor of the Havana Hilton.

"I felt absolutely terrified, happy, frustrated, crazy, and defying my parents without telling them. I felt very guilty. I was taken to a suite 2408 which linked to 246 with doors. The first thing I remember...the smell of cigars, this is his place. I look around and there's all his uniforms and this beautiful music; it was a record that never stopped. It played over and over and over again. There were boots turned upside down and ashtrays with cigars in it and then I see toys... little tanks and then a bazooka sticking out from under the bed. This was where Fidel was living and that kind of scared me a little bit but I don't have anywhere to go even if I tried. The whole hall was filled with bodyguards and it was Fidel's suite and they just said wait and don't go out. Just wait and I did just that. I waited and waited and waited. All of a sudden, I hear the door swing open and he came in and picked me up and swung me around and...I miss you so much you know, and love talk and that's a moment I'll never forget."

The CIA had been looking for ways of getting to Castro and they had just stumbled on their first big break. Through Miss Loren, they would have very close access to Fidel because he had very very tight security.He had bodyguards with him... protective detail wherever he went- from the very beginning he enjoyed very very good personal security. So good that it's comparable to the best anywhere in the world, one of the world's best intelligence and Counter Intelligence organizations.

Back in Washington, CIA agents realized that 19-year-old Marita Loren might be exactly what they were looking for. Here was one of the prime targets of the U.S. government and the CIA—none other than Fidel Castro himself. Anyone in his inner circle or remotely connected to him would be thoroughly scrutinized by U.S. intelligence. Marita, who had developed a romantic relationship with the Cuban leader, caught the agency’s attention. A romantic relationship with Fidel meant Marita could get closer than anyone else, bypassing all his layers of security. She was the ultimate recruitment target—no one had the level of access that she did. For the CIA, she was a golden opportunity.

In April 1959, Castro was invited to the U.S. by the Society of Newspaper Editors. Eager to sway American public opinion as tensions with the U.S. escalated, Castro accepted the invitation. Marita accompanied him on the 11-day visit, and the CIA was there, watching. 

At the heart of the agency’s strategy was the "Foreign Agent Recruitment Cycle," a methodical approach to turning targets. First, they would spot a person who had direct access to their ultimate objective. Marita, with her romantic ties to Castro, was a prime candidate. The CIA may have spotted her during her time in Havana, or perhaps during the trip to the U.S. when she traveled with Fidel.

Castro’s visit included a meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon after a snub from President Eisenhower, which left Castro seething. He had hoped for a warm reception from the American leadership as the new face of Cuba, but Eisenhower’s cold shoulder only fueled his anger. This visit with Nixon would have been heavily monitored by U.S. intelligence, and it would have provided the perfect opportunity to assess Marita as a potential asset.

Next in the CIA’s recruitment cycle came assessment. They’d evaluate the person’s vulnerabilities and determine if they were susceptible to recruitment. After this came development—they’d befriend the target, identify potential pressure points, and, finally, make their move. When the time was right, the agency would extend its pitch: “Would you be willing to work with us?” And in this game of shadows, Marita Loren was at the center, a romantic partner who had the potential to become a key asset in one of the most critical covert operations of the Cold War.

Marita thought her life with Fidel was a dream come true. After two blissful months, she discovered she was pregnant with his child. “I was happy, very happy. I wanted it,” she recalled. As she mulled over the future, she asked him, “I wonder what it’s going to be?” He laughed and said, “Oh, wonderful! Half German, half Cuban.” She added, “And American,” to which he chuckled and said, “Now, I have to build another hospital.” 

But reality struck Marita. Being Fidel Castro's lover came with its own set of limitations. She understood his loyalty was not to her, but to Cuba. “He made that very clear,” she said. “He belonged to everybody and to Cuba first—and to nobody but Cuba.”

Meanwhile, across the water, the United States grew increasingly concerned with Castro’s growing popularity. Fidel Castro had become a colossal figure in Latin America after his triumph in 1959. At only 32, he had emerged from the mountains after a two-year insurgency, hailed as the hero of the Cuban people. With his signature beard and carefully curated guerrilla attire, he struck a bold figure that inspired admiration—especially among youth, nationalists, and the radical left across Latin America.

It was only weeks after his victory that Fidel started vocally attacking the United States. In speech after speech, he relentlessly criticized America. "If the Americans don’t like what’s happening in Cuba," he proclaimed, "they can land the Marines—and there will be 200,000 Gringo dead." His fiery rhetoric didn't stop there, "Even if the Yankee imperialists prepare a bloody drama for America, they will not succeed in crushing the people's struggles. They will only arouse universal hatred against themselves, and such a drama will also mark the death of their greedy and carnivorous system."

By the end of 1959, U.S.-Cuban relations had hit rock bottom. It was becoming evident that Fidel was not interested in democracy, fair governance, or human rights. He was actively promoting violent interventions in Latin American countries and exporting his revolution. The U.S. government now realized that Fidel needed to be stopped. In Washington, the CIA—still held in high regard—was seen as the best tool to orchestrate covert actions against the Cuban leader. 

Castro's defiance, however, marked the beginning of an enduring struggle between two ideologies—each determined to assert its dominance, while Marita’s love story became a footnote in a much larger conflict.

What happens next is nothing short of bizarre. Marita’s life takes a dark and twisted turn that ultimately puts her in contact with the CIA. Alone in Fidel Castro’s penthouse apartment at the Havana Hilton, Marita was seven and a half months pregnant, and everything seemed to be going fine. She had just ordered her breakfast when things suddenly changed. “I drank the milk,” she recalled. “I felt dizzy. I thought it was just the pregnancy.” But it wasn’t. All she remembered was falling backward onto the bed—and then everything went dark.

The next time Marita woke up, she was in a car, being driven somewhere. Barely conscious, she drifted in and out of awareness. “I was like half asleep, and then I was out again.” The memories that followed were hazy, as if pieced together from fleeting glimpses. She recalled lights above her, voices arguing in Spanish, and the mention of Fidel. But who were they arguing with? For him? Against him? Marita couldn’t make sense of it. Even more disturbingly, she wasn’t sure if her clothes were on or off, her body moving in ways she couldn’t control.

What she did know was that something horrific was happening to her—and to her baby. The pain was excruciating, and at one point, she thought the baby was being born. She even heard a baby cry for a fleeting moment. But then, everything went black again. When she awoke, she was back in her suite, but she wasn’t the same. She was terribly ill, and one of Castro’s aides quickly arranged for her to fly to New York for urgent medical treatment.

As soon as her plane touched down, FBI agents were waiting for her. She was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital under their protection, where doctors discovered the unthinkable—Marita had undergone a forced abortion in Havana and was now suffering from blood poisoning, requiring immediate surgery. But the most unsettling question remained: Who was responsible? Had the Cuban government orchestrated this horrifying act, or was the U.S. government, through the CIA, involved?

Marita would soon learn the terrifying reality of her situation. Most experts suspected Castro himself. Given his multiple lovers, the birth of a child could have posed political risks, and eliminating the pregnancy may have been his way of mitigating them. But regardless of who was behind it, the CIA saw this as their opportunity. The forced abortion became a powerful tool to turn Marita against Castro. It was the ultimate betrayal—not only by the man she loved but also the loss of the child she had longed for.

This was when the CIA’s plan to recruit Marita as an assassin began to take shape. First, they played the good cop. While she recovered physically, emotionally, and mentally in New York, they surrounded her with agents, watching over her day and night. “They gave me so-called vitamins,” Marita later recounted, suspecting she was being manipulated in more ways than one. They nurtured her vulnerabilities, appealing to her heartbreak, sadness, and deep sense of betrayal. “I was 19, very naïve about politics, international affairs, or love affairs,” she said. They repeated the same message relentlessly: Fidel was the bad guy, and the United States was the good guy.

Marita began to unravel emotionally, curling into a ball, crying hysterically, and throwing things in fits of despair. The agents used her grief to their advantage, feeding her pills to calm her down and convincing her that she needed to do something about her anger. They pressed her to see the forced abortion as an act of ultimate treachery by Castro.

But before they could go any further, the CIA needed to ensure Marita was telling the truth about her past. Vetting her was crucial to ensure she wasn’t a double agent. Every detail of her life was scrutinized—her trips back to Havana, her relationships, her travel records, and anyone who knew her. Only when the agency was satisfied that her information was credible would they proceed.

Now, having emotionally broken her down and planted the seed that Fidel was not the man she thought he was, the CIA turned to the next step: getting Marita on their side politically. This was the beginning of her recruitment as a tool in the U.S. government’s larger, clandestine effort to remove Fidel Castro from power.

The CIA agents began to dig deeper into Marita’s past, uncovering details that further cemented their plan to turn her against Fidel Castro. Marita revealed that she was born in Germany on August 18, 1939—just two weeks before her country invaded Poland and set the world ablaze in war. “I’m a child of the war,” she said. “All I remember were hard times.”

The agents learned that her father, Enri, had been a German submarine captain during World War II. Even more intriguing, Marita disclosed that her mother, Alice, had worked as a spy for both the French Resistance and British intelligence during the war. Marita’s early memories of her mother were haunting: “My first memories of her were in the basement, where she would do morse code… da-da-da-da…”

Marita went on to explain that in 1944, her mother’s cover had been blown. Alice was captured and thrown into the infamous Nazi concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen. Only five years old at the time, Marita was forced to accompany her mother. “I was incarcerated in an SS home and then transferred to Belsen,” she recalled. The trauma of her childhood was almost unbearable. She remembered the war’s final months in 1945, when the camp was liberated by Allied forces. “A British ambulance driver found me half dead under a bunk at Belsen and pulled me out,” Marita said.

After surviving the horrors of war, Marita and her family eventually moved to the United States in 1950, settling in New York. It was there that life finally began to improve for her. She found comfort and happiness in her new country, but the scars of her brutal childhood in Germany remained. The CIA agents quickly recognized this and played on her newfound loyalty to America—the country that had saved her from the ashes of war and had given her a second chance at life.

The agents capitalized on her emotional vulnerability, reminding her that Fidel Castro was now a threat to the very country that had given her so much. They planted the seeds of doubt in her mind, painting Castro as the ultimate villain—not just in their relationship but in the larger global stage. “He’s determined to invade the United States, to overthrow the government,” they would say. They linked him to Russia, painting him as a “commie” bent on the destruction of the American way of life. And then came the bombshell: “He never told you any of this, did he?”

Marita, blindsided by these revelations, began to feel even more betrayed. She had no idea about Castro’s political affiliations or the extent of his hatred toward America. “I was too dumb, too blind,” she later admitted. The agents kept her isolated, confined to a room where they controlled everything—from her access to the outside world to the food she ate. “I wouldn’t go out. They would just bring food, and all they ever talked about was how Castro was a commie. They wouldn’t stop.”

After weeks of this relentless psychological manipulation, the CIA agents finally made their move. The time had come for the final step in Marita’s recruitment: the pitch. “They said, ‘Now you can work for us—work for U.S. intelligence and ultimately, the U.S. government,’” Marita recalled. By now, the agents had worn her down emotionally, mentally, and physically. She agreed to join them.

Only then did the agents reveal their true intentions. The CIA had no ordinary job for her. They wanted her to be their assassin, their weapon to take down Fidel Castro.

With Marita back in Cuba, the CIA is keen to ensure she’s fully committed to their mission. They had already planted the idea in her mind that her role in killing Fidel Castro wasn’t just personal revenge but a patriotic duty. They emphasized that by neutralizing Castro, she would be saving millions of American lives, preventing nuclear war, and ultimately becoming a hero in the fight against communism. The pressure to “do the right thing” weighed heavily on her.

"You’re going to be a good citizen,” they told her. “You have to do this—not just for you, but for the United States and its people.” Marita began to internalize these messages. The idea that she alone could prevent a catastrophic war, that she could be the savior of her adopted country, and that she would earn her place in history began to take root. "Maybe they weren’t all that wrong,” she recalled thinking. If Castro was truly as unpredictable as they made him out to be, she reasoned, then perhaps it was her responsibility to act before it was too late. The thought of slipping something into his food to “put him to sleep” became a real possibility in her mind.

Towards the end of December 1959, the CIA sent Marita back to Havana under the guise of an American tourist. Her real task was to gauge how Castro would react to seeing her after her six-week absence. The agency needed to ensure that he still trusted her, that he hadn’t grown suspicious of her time in New York.

Marita’s return to Castro’s penthouse was eerie. She entered with her own key to room 248, the room she had once shared with him. Nothing had changed. The toys were still scattered about, the music still played, his boots were still by the door, and his clothes remained in the closet. This familiarity was comforting, yet surreal, as Marita was no longer just his lover—she was now also his would-be assassin.

For the CIA, this was a crucial test. If she behaved according to their instructions, played her role convincingly, and returned safely to the U.S., they would know that she was truly on their side. Marita passed the test. Castro didn’t suspect her, and she successfully returned to the U.S. after the mission. This cemented her role in the CIA’s eyes as a willing and trusted agent.

With her loyalty confirmed, the CIA began preparing the assassination plan in earnest. Marita, however, was now faced with the reality of what she had agreed to: she would have to kill the man she had once loved in order to fulfill her duty to the United States.

At the beginning of January 1960, the CIA sent Marita Lorenz to Miami to meet Frank Sturgis, a former U.S. Marine and a man who had once fought alongside Fidel Castro but had since switched sides. Sturgis had become a CIA operative and was heavily involved in anti-Castro activities. Described by some as a real-life James Bond, Sturgis was known for his daring escapades and over 30 different aliases. He was a man of action who firmly believed in fighting against communism and took a strong stand against Fidel Castro’s regime.

Sturgis, now working closely with the CIA, was tasked with helping Marita carry out the assassination of Castro. After assessing various options—guns, knives, other weapons—he ultimately settled on poison as the method of assassination. To acquire the poison, Sturgis turned to an unexpected ally: the Mafia. The Mafia, who had previously controlled much of Cuba’s gambling and business interests before Castro came to power, had a strong desire to get rid of him in the hopes of regaining their influence in Cuba. The CIA and the Mafia found common ground in their desire to eliminate Castro, and Sturgis successfully secured botulism toxin from them.

The poison was an ideal choice for Marita because it was undetectable, odorless, and tasteless, and would dissolve invisibly in liquid. It was designed to kill quickly and painlessly, ensuring that Castro wouldn’t suffer. The CIA portrayed it to Marita as a "merciful" method, emphasizing that she wouldn’t have to engage in any violent act, such as pulling the trigger of a gun. They framed it as the easiest and least traumatic way to neutralize him.

With the plan in place, Marita was now fully equipped to carry out the assassination. However, there was one significant obstacle that stood in the way: Castro himself. He was notoriously unpredictable, with no set routine or schedule. He moved frequently, often with little notice, making it almost impossible for the CIA to pinpoint where he would be at any given time. Even those closest to Castro had difficulty keeping track of him, as he would appear in Havana one minute and then be on the other side of the island the next.

This unpredictability posed a significant challenge to the CIA’s plan. They needed to find some regularity in his schedule—some habit or routine that they could exploit to set the assassination in motion. But with Castro’s erratic behavior, getting close enough to him with the poison became a daunting task. Despite the difficulties, the CIA remained determined to find a way to carry out their plan to eliminate Castro with Marita as their secret weapon.

Marita's return to Havana in early 1960 marked the culmination of weeks of preparation and pressure from the CIA to carry out one of the most significant assassinations in Cold War history: the elimination of Fidel Castro. The CIA had identified a pattern in Castro's behavior—whenever he was set to deliver a live television broadcast, he would stay at his penthouse in the Havana Hilton. This intel set the stage for Marita's mission.

Flying from Miami to Havana with the poison pills concealed in a cold cream jar, Marita successfully passed through customs without raising suspicion. However, as she approached Castro’s penthouse suite, the gravity of her task weighed heavily on her. The poison pills, meant to be her weapon, were now covered in the sticky cold cream, making them difficult to handle. She panicked as she struggled to clean them, all while knowing that at any moment, Castro could walk in on her.

And then he did.

As Castro entered the room, Marita's anxiety reached its peak. She feared that he knew of her mission, especially when he commented on her recent time in Miami. The tension escalated when Castro removed his gun and handed it to her, asking directly, "Did you come to kill me?" In that moment, Castro made himself vulnerable, almost testing Marita’s resolve. He presented himself as invincible, even claiming that no one could kill him. 

Despite having the opportunity to kill Castro—he had handed her the gun, leaving himself open—Marita couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she ejected the magazine from the gun and returned it to him. What followed was a night of intimacy between the two, but something had changed. The act of love lacked the emotional connection they once shared, and for Marita, the loss of their child hung heavy in the air, making the night feel hollow and incomplete.

In the end, Marita's mission failed—not because of logistical difficulties or CIA oversight, but because she could not kill the man she once loved. The complex emotions and personal ties between them outweighed her sense of duty to the United States and the pressure from the CIA.

 After failing to assassinate Fidel Castro, Marita Lorenz returned to Miami and reported her failure to the CIA. According to Frank Sturgis, Marita's deep emotional connection to Castro was likely the reason she couldn’t follow through with the mission. The CIA, however, was no stranger to failure and simply moved on to its next plan, continuing its pursuit of Castro’s elimination.

Marita's attempt was the first known assassination plot against Castro, but far from the last. Over the years, it is estimated that there were 638 attempts on Castro’s life, ranging from military invasions to bizarre methods like exploding cigars, poisoned pens, and sniper attacks. All of these attempts failed, largely due to Castro's ruthless internal security apparatus and his swift elimination of any potential threats to his rule. Despite the efforts of both the CIA and Cuban exiles, Castro remained in power for decades, eventually stepping down in 2008, having survived longer than nearly any other head of state.

As for Frank Sturgis, his role in the Bay of Pigs invasion the following year further tied him to the CIA’s anti-Castro operations. However, his infamy grew when he was later implicated as one of the Watergate burglars, part of President Nixon's plot to break into the Democratic National Headquarters. Sturgis was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in the scandal.

Marita continued her anti-Castro efforts after her failed mission. During one of these ventures, she met and fell in love with Venezuelan dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, with whom she had a daughter. Their relationship was short-lived, as Pérez Jiménez was later imprisoned on charges of embezzling $200 million.

In 2000, Marita made an attempt to reconnect with Fidel Castro by returning to Havana, but he refused to meet with her. Today, Marita resides in New York, her life intertwined with some of the most notorious political figures of the 20th century.