Answer to —

3. Which Latin American political figure was killed in a CIA assassination plot?

May 17, 2021 | revcom.us

 

Answer: c

On October 8, 1967, a guerrilla unit led by Ernesto “Che” Guevara was ambushed in the Andes mountains of Bolivia, and Che was killed the next day. The man in charge of the Bolivian army unit at the scene, known as “Captain Ramos,” was a veteran CIA field agent, Félix Rodriguez. Rodriguez had previously led a CIA death squad in Vietnam. Later, this same Félix Rodriguez would be personally appointed by George Bush [the father of George W.] to be the key CIA operative at El Salvador’s Ilopango Air Force base during the 1980s, where Rodriguez oversaw the CIA’s notorious cocaine-for-arms air flights (see Question 2).

As for the other answer choices: After Fidel Castro led the overthrow of the U.S-backed regime in Cuba in 1959, the CIA tried several times, including working with the Mafia, to assassinate him. In 1961, the CIA launched a direct attack on Cuba (known as the “Bay of Pigs Invasion”) using a group of Cuban counter-revolutionaries, in an attempt to overthrow Castro—which ended in failure. Manuel Noriega was a CIA “asset” before the U.S. turned against him; after an unsuccessful CIA assassination attempt against him, the U.S. overthrew him in a direct military invasion in 1989-1990. Salvador Allende, the elected president of Chile, reportedly committed suicide during the 1973 CIA coup that overthrew his government (see Question 1).

And there have been other CIA assassinations around the world. To name just one: the murder of Patrice Lumumba in Congo. In July 1960, a nationalist government came to power in the Central African country of Congo, after decades of brutal colonial rule. The CIA immediately began working to destabilize the country. During a White House national security meeting, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower personally ordered the assassination of the popular Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba. In September 1960, the CIA “asset” Colonel Mobutu staged a coup. Lumumba was caught after escaping house arrest and assassinated by Mobutu’s men in January 1961.

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A CIA authenticated photo of Che Guevara and Felix Rodriguez.

In one of the last photos taken of him while still alive, Patrice Lumumba is shown captive on December 2, 1960. The CIA orchestrated a coup against Lumumba, using Congolese Army Colonel Joseph Mobutu, to carry it out and to murder Lumumba. (Photo: AP)