Rolando Cubela Secades

Rolando Cubela Secades (19 January 1933 – 23 August 2022) was a Cuban revolutionary leader who played a vital part in the Cuban Revolution, having been a founding member of the Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo and later the military leader of the DR's Escambray Mountain front, achieving the rank of Commander, the highest military rank in the Revolutionary Army. After the Revolution succeeded in 1959, Cubela became Cuba's envoy to UNESCO. Under the cryptonym AM/LASH, Cubela became "an important asset" of the Central Intelligence Agency, and worked with them on plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. In 1966, Cubela was arrested for plotting the assassination of Castro, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Released in 1979, he went into exile in Spain.

Career Cubela was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on 19 January 1933, though many sources incorrectly cite 1932. In 1955 Cubela was a founding member of the Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo (DR), and was one of eight members of its Executive Council. In 1956 Cubela was part of a DR group which attempted to assassinate Santiago Rey Perna, a member of President Fulgencio Batista's cabinet; Perna was absent at the time of the attack and the group instead assassinated Antonio Blanco Rico, head of Cuban military intelligence. Cubela leading the DR was wounded in the Battle of Santa Clara. At another Paris meeting, on 22 November 1963, Cubela received a "poison pen" – a fountain pen with a hypodermic needle to be used to inject Castro with a poison. Nevertheless, Cubela was insisting on a meeting with US Attorney General Robert Kennedy before proceeding with the assassination of Castro. The CIA cautious of "plausible deniability" stalled. In June 1965, however, the Agency terminated its relationship with Cubela "for reasons related to security". They had been tipped off by the Cuban exile Eladio del Valle that Cubela was in contact with the mafia boss Santo Trafficante Jr. who he had discussed the Castro assassination plots with. The CIA suspected Trafficante may have been passing on information to Castro.

On 28 February 1966, Castro summoned Cubela to his office, and had him arrested for plotting to kill the head of state. The prosecution did not refer to Cubela's pre-1964 CIA contacts or activities, including the 1963 poison pen episode, limiting evidence to 1964–5 activities. After Castro petitioned the court to avoid the death penalty, Cubela was sentenced to 25 years in prison. After his pardon by Castro and his release in 1979, he went into exile to Spain, and became a physician. He spent the last years of his life in Miami, Florida, where he did not participate in the political activities of the Cuban exile community.

He died on 24 August 2022 at a hospital in Doral, Florida, United States.

In fiction Cubela appears in Che (2008), played by different actors in parts one and two. He also features in Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost.