The film reveals multiple methods of
assassination,
exploding cigars to
femmes fatales; a radio station rigged with gaseous
LSD to a poison
syringe posing as an innocuous
fountain pen. Fabian Escalante, the former head of the
Intelligence Directorate and the man who had the job of protecting Castro for many of the 49 years he was in power, said that there were over 600 plots and conspiracies known to Cuban agents, all dreamt up to end Castro's life. Some were perpetrated by the
Central Intelligence Agency, especially during the first half of the 1960s. From the seventies onwards, the attempts were most often made by
Cuban exiles who had been trained by the CIA shortly after Castro took power in 1959. The film also contains extensive material shot with
Antonio Veciana, the Cuban exile who came close to killing Castro on three occasions over 17 years. He is found running a marine supplies store in Miami. All these men, the film claims, were supported and funded by the
United States government. At one point the CIA even sought the help of the
Mafia in the hope they would be able to succeed where so many others had failed. Other characters are Cuban exile
Félix Rodríguez, the CIA operative who trained Cuban exiles for the
Bay of Pigs Invasion, and who was present when the
Bolivian Army killed
Che Guevara in 1967 at the request of the Bolivian President at the time, and Enrique Ovares, possibly the first man to make an attempt on Castro's life after he took power.
Robert Maheu is also interviewed, the Hughes associate who served as liaison between the CIA and mobsters
"Johnny" Roselli and
Sam "Momo" Giancana, in another plot to kill Castro, this time using poison pills. The sub-text of the film is a comment on the contemporary "
war on terror". The film's executive producer was Peter Moore. It was directed by Dollan Cannell and the commissioning editor was Meredith Chambers. ==Controversy==