Juanita Castro

Juana de la Caridad "Juanita" Castro Ruz ( , ; born 6 May 1933) is a Cuban activist as well as the sister of Fidel and Raúl, both former presidents of Cuba, and Ramón, key figure of the Cuban Revolution. After collaborating with the Central Intelligence Agency in Cuba, she has lived in the United States since 1964. Early life Juanita was born in Birán, near Mayarí, in what is now known as Holguín Province. She is the fourth child of Ángel Castro y Argiz and Lina Ruz González and has three brothers — Ramón, Fidel, and Raúl — and three sisters — Angelita, Emma, and Agustina. Lina Ruz Gonzalez was Angel Castro's cook; he was married to another woman when Juanita and her older brothers were born. She also has five half-siblings: Lidia, Pedro Emilio, Manuel, Antonia, and Georgina, who were raised by Ángel Castro's first wife Maria Luisa Argota, as well as another half-brother, Martin, from her father’s relationship with a farmhand. Politics Juanita Castro was active in the Cuban revolution, buying weapons for the 26th of July movement during their campaign against Fulgencio Batista. In 1958 she traveled to the U.S. to raise funds to support the insurgent movement. After the revolution Juanita felt betrayed by the growing influence of Cuban communists in the Cuban government. Fidel and Raúl's government policies clashed with family interests. When the two revolutionaries insisted on including the family plantation in their agrarian reform program to limit private land ownership, their older brother Ramón, who had been maintaining the property, angrily exploded, "Raúl is a dirty little Communist. Some day I am going to kill him."