C&EN: "How the CIA tried to use chemistry to kill Castro—and why it failed"

This was unexpectedly fascinating (by Anirban Mukhopadhyay)

This August marked what would have been the 100th birthday of Fidel Castro. But while the Cuban leader ultimately died of natural causes in November 2016, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spent decades trying to cut his life short.

As president of Cuba, Castro was instantly recognizable: the fatigues, the beard, and the improbable political longevity. For much of the world, he became shorthand for revolution and defiance. For Washington, DC, he was something more specific and more worrying—a destabilizing adversary parked 145 km from Florida whose continued survival felt like a standing provocation.

That anxiety runs through a 1967 internal investigation by CIA inspector general John S. Earman, which the George Washington University’s National Security Archive posted online in October 2025. The report details CIA plots to murder, sicken, or discredit Castro. Some relied on chemistry rather than guns or coups, including cigars laced with botulinum toxin, depilatory agents meant to make his beard fall out, and psychoactive compounds intended to derail a public appearance.

Definitely read the whole thing.