14ymedio, Madrid, January 25, 2024 — Former Colombian drug trafficker Carlos Lehder, who has just published his memoirs under the title Life and Death of the Medellín Cartel, continues to reveal details about the relationship of the criminal organization with Cuba. In a telephone interview with journalist Vicky Dávila on Semana magazine’s television program, the former criminal reiterates that “obviously Fidel Castro had to know about the cocaine trafficking; he was the conductor of the orchestra.”
When asked about the veracity of this assertion, he says: “I imagine that Fidel Castro was aware of everything, but I don’t know, because I didn’t see them talking together. I know that Raúl Castro was the commander of that operation, the leader, and I emphasize that they, although they did not know how to traffic cocaine, immediately tried to control the entire business.”
Beyond the book, where he tells about his meeting with the youngest of the Castros, then Minister of Defense, Lehder revealed that being imprisoned in the United States, where he was extradited in 1987, and cooperating with authorities, he learned that the U.S. government tried to file federal charges against Raúl Castro for “cocaine trafficking.”
They never brought federal charges against Raúl Castro although they had mountains of evidence, and a number of boatmen had been caught with cocaine coming from Cuba
The U.S. security and surveillance forces, sa