Juanita Castro, sister of Cuban rulers Fidel and Raúl Castro, cooperated with the CIA in the 1960s -- a time when the U.S. agency was plotting to assassinate Fidel and overthrow his revolution -- according to an exclusive Univisión-Noticias 23 report on her newly published book.

The report also revealed that Juanita, who broke with her brothers' revolution in 1964, hid government opponents in her home; that Fidel refused to visit her because the house was ``surrounded by worms;'' and that their mother often intervened with Raúl to help Castro critics, jailed or fugitive.

Described as the Castro family's best-kept secret in the weeks that preceded the release of her book Monday, Juanita's revelation of her link with the CIA came as a short teaser at the end of a Univisión-Noticias 23 report on the book broadcast at 11 p.m. Sunday.

Juanita told the program that a person close to her and Fidel told her that ``The CIA wanted to talk with me . . . because they had interesting things to tell me and interesting things to ask of me. . . . I was left half-shocked, but in any case I told them yes.''

Maria Antonieta Collins, who co-authored the book and reported the television story, then added: ``Tomorrow: For the first time, a CIA agent who became the lifetime protector of a collaborator . . . and who dared propose to the sister of Fidel that she cooperate with the CIA, archenemy of the Castro brothers?''

Throughout the early 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in dozens of plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, overthrow his government and sabotage the island's economy.

Castro has often put the total number of plots to kill him at more than 600.

While Juanita and Collins gave no other details on the CIA connection, officials at the television station said Juanita acknowledges in her book, Fidel and Raúl, My Brothers. The Secret History, that she collaborated with the CIA both inside Cuba and after she went into exile in 1964.

Univisión-Noticias 23 will broadcast seven more segments of the Juanita Castro saga this week.

The book, published by Santillana USA, was to hit the stands simultaneously Monday in the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Spain.

Journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner, who wrote its prologue, told El Nuevo Herald last week that besides the key revelation the book contains ``very interesting and unknown news on the family of Fidel Castro, with a very inside, personal and critical view of the family.''

Juanita has been a public critic of her brothers' government since she left Cuba.

Now 76, she owned a Miami pharmacy for many years and is the fifth offspring of Angel Castro and Lina Ruz -- preceded by Angelita, Ramón, Fidel and Raúl and followed by Emma and Agustina.

In Sunday's TV broadcast, Juanita recalls that hers was ``just one more Cuban family'' until Fidel and Raúl led the 1953 attack on the Moncada army barracks that the brothers now celebrate as the beginning of their revolution.

CREATED CLINICS

After they ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in early 1959, she worked on creating clinics and hospitals in the countryside.

The revolution soon began executing and jailing opponents and confiscating private properties.

``I begin to lose the enthusiasm when I see so much injustice and I say, this is not possible, they are wrong. Someone here is doing things badly,'' she said on the program.

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