Marita: One Woman's Extraordinary Tale of Love and Espionage from Castro to Kennedy

Marita: One Woman's Extraordinary Tale of Love and Espionage from Castro to Kennedy by Schwarz, Ted. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781560250555.

No true life story can possibly compare to the fantastic adventures of Marita Lorenz. From Fidel Castros lover at age 19, to CIA spy, to human rights activist, Marita tells her own incredible story with all of the passion and force that it took to live it. In the spring of 1959, aboard her fathers ship in Havana harbor, Marita fell under the spell of Fidel Castro and soon fled home and family in New York City to return to Cuba to be with him. Installed in a suite of the Havana Hilton, she became Castros lover, trusted advisor, and a lieutenant in his 26th of July movement. Within months, she was pregnant with his child. Despite or perhaps because of her close relationship with Fidel, she was betrayed by those nearest to him - kidnapped, drugged, and forcibly aborted of her child. Still heavily sedated and close to death, she was taken back to the United States where she was immediately embraced by National Security officials eager to use her in their growing anti-Castro propaganda campaign. Soon this escalated into something far more sinister as government agents tried to program Marita into an assassin to kill Castro. Maritas adventures continue as a disillusioned young woman is turned into an accomplished but unwilling operative in the CIA by the likes of Frank Sturgis and E. Howard Hunt. The only woman in a mans world, she developed the skills and courage that made her an invaluable agent and gained her the nickname "Alemana Fria" - the "Cold German." Among her many assignments, perhaps the most harrowing is a mysterious gunrunning mission from Miami to Dallas with a strange character named "Ozzie" (Lee Harvey Oswald) just days before the JFK assassination. Never far from the center of controversy, Marita becomes involved with former Venezuelan dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez. Impulsively following him to Venezuela when he is deported from the U.S., she spends a year abandoned with her baby daughter in the dense jungle with a tribe of Yanomano Indians. Once again, Maritas indomitable spirit empowers her with the will to survive and prevail. Overcoming every obstacle, Marita at heart has always maintained her love for Cuba. Ultimately, driven by her concern for the Marielitos, the Cuban boat people, she is able to return to Havana to meet with Castro and see, for the first time, the son she thought was dead. Maritas story is one of high adventure, high romance, and high drama, made more vivid and poignant by the fact that it is all true.