Fidel Castro
Raped
My Teen-Age Daughter
CONFIDENTIAL
MAY, 1960 p. 18
Am American Mother's Terrifying Story–
"FIDEL CASTRO RAPED MY TEEN-AGE DAUGHTER"
Lured to Cuban by Castro, Marita Lorenz, 18, was
kidnapped [kidnaped], raped and then cruelly aborted!
Page 19
By: Alice J. Lorenz
[photo
caption] Fidel Castro, Cuba's popular hero
gives
a victory salute to people.
"NO, FIDEL! NO. Don't let them kill our
baby–don't let them
kill our baby!"
My daughter, Marita, white-faced and sobbing, cried
uncontrollably into
her pillow at Roosevelt Hospital, New York, on January 20,
1960. She
was in a semicoma, emerging from the effects of anesthesia
after a curettage operation to save her life.
She was reliving the horror of the criminal abortion
performed on her by a Dr. Ferrer in Havana, Cuba, under
direct orders of Fidel Castro. My
daughter did not want that abortion–the murder of the unborn
child, 5 ½
months old–and the doctor would not have performed it, but
with a gun at
his head, the doctor had little choice.
The frightened doctor was shaking and understandably
careless. The abortion was crude. The results
were frightening. My daughter was left half-dead.
The abortion was the final cruel act on a long list of
degradations committed against my daughter. At the
time the Prime Minister of Cuba perpetrated these crimes he
knew full well that I and my daughter were cousins of the
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Henry Cabot Lodge,
that my husband, a German national, was Captain of the liner
Bremen and that he –Castro–was defaming my daughter's
innocence.
I therefore accuse Fidel Castro of the following inhuman
crimes:
1) Luring my daughter, whom he met while a guest on my
husband's ship, to Cuba under false promises and a guarantee
of safe conduct.
2) Violating her rights by kidnapping [kidnaping] her and
keeping her against her will at the Havana Hilton Hotel
under armed guard.
3) Forcibly raping my daughter and robbing her of her
innocence.
4) Refusing her the right to communicate with her family.
5) Keeping her in a drugged state at various times.
6) Taking her to New York under armed guard and threatening
her with death if she revealed her story to the mother or
the police.
7) Returning her to Cuba under guard and violating her
rights as an American.
8) Forcing an abortion to be done but at such a late date
(Marita was 5
½ months pregnant) that her life was endangered. It
was also
against my daughter's religious convictions to have an
abortion.
9) Promising to marry my daughter in order to prevent an
international scandal because of his acts.
10) Continuing to harass my daughter with threats against
her life and mine and threats of other vengeance.
These threats are being made to keep my daughter's story
from being published.
The terrible tragedy began on February 2, 1959, when I was
assigned to the United States Army in Europe. I have
been a government employee for 13 years and I have career
(Continued on next page)
Page 20
[photo caption]
Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. Ambassador to United Nations,
is a second cousin to Alice Lorenz, author of story.
CASTRO continued
status. Arrangements were made for Marita to follow
me. In the interim, her father, Heinrich Lorenz, then
Captain of the MS Berlin, was to
take her on a Caribbean cruise as a sort of vacation before
she entered college
at Heidelberg, Germany.
Some days later, when the Berlin entered the harbor of
Havana, my husband's ship was suddenly surrounded by Cuban
gunboats and boarded by Fidel Castro and about 40 armed
barbudos.
The cruise passengers, including my daughter, were
frightened, but the Captain, wishing to avoid any incident,
offered the hospitality of the ship to Castro. Later,
at dinner, Dr. Castro was formally introduced to Marita at
the Captain's table.
Castro showed a marked attention to Marita, who is young and
pretty. A teen-ager who led a sheltered life, Marita
was flattered by this attention by the head of a
country. They went for a stroll on the top deck and
holding her hand, Castro pointed to the lighted city of
Havana and said, "All
this is mine. All Cuba is mine. Is it not
beautiful? Do
you not like what you see, Marita?"
Marita nodded at the panoramic beauty of Havana at
night. Castro then spread his arms like a Messiah,
looked at the heavens and said, "I am Cuba."
Marita saw Castro on that trip but once, but her head was
swimming. The unmarried, romantic, bearded
revolutionary who had freed Cuba had showered his attentions
upon her. Would it end there? Would he call on
her again? Would he ask her father for her hand in
marriage?
These are the teen-age dreams that enter a girl's mind–and
they were in
Marita's head during the trip back to New York. There
the Captain left
Marita with my son, Joachim, then a student at the Graduate
School of International Relations at Columbia
University. Marita was to sail for Germany on the
Captain's next trip there in two weeks.
But when the Captain returned, Marita was gone! In the
interim, Castro had phoned Marita continually from
Havana. His aides called her from the Cuban
Consulate. He promised her the moon. His
associates spoke of the important work of the 26th of July
Movement and the wonderful and the wonderful things she
could do to help Cuba. Finally, Castro convinced her
to take a short trip to Cuba before she went to college in
Germany.
"It will be a fine vacation."
Castro sent her an invitation to com down as the guest of
the government and guaranteed her safe passage as "his
personal guest." Marita's young mind was turned by the
hints of marriage and the promises of a good time. She
agreed to go.
Castro sent two aides to New York by plane. They were
to be her personal escorts. Nothing on earth could
have been more flattering. On March 4, 1959, using a
diplomatic ticket issued at the Cuban Consulate, Marita flew
to Havana on a Cubana Airlines flight.
Nothing was heard from her or about her for months. I
was in Germany, my husband after crossing the Atlantic, was
hospitalized at Bremerhaven with a heart attack and my son
was at college in New York. We knew what had
occurred up to the minute she left for Havana–but nothing
after that. It was to break our hearts when we did
piece the story together.
With stardust in her eyes, Marita departed for Havana,
Castro's pleas of love had made an impression on her young,
impressionable mind. But the
bubbly dream burst the minute the plane landed. From
the time she walked
into the airport she was a prisoner. Armed barbudos
accompanied her
to Castro's headquarters, the Havana Hilton Hotel. She
was locked in
her room while bearded, rifle-bearing soldiers guarded her
door and the street
below her window. Letters were censored, or
withheld–telephone calls
listened to or cut off. When she tried to go for a
walk, two guards
accompanied her but refused to speak to her. "I
want to see Dr.
Castro," she told them again and again, but they shrugged
their shoulders and refused.
On the 4th day, at 4 p.m., when Marita was most distraught
and at her wit's end, Fidel Castro entered her room.
She ran to him, relieved at seeing a familiar face.
"Fidel," she said, "Why are they keeping me at
prisoner? Why haven't you come to see me? Why
can't I phone my brothers in New York?"
Castro didn't answer her questions, but took her in his arms
as if to kiss her. She was too frightened to pull
away. He said she wasn't a
prisoner. You are being protected from the
counter-revolutionaries," he said, "I want to keep you free
from harm."
He talked to her for about half an hour and calmed her
somewhat. Then he stood up and said, "Marita, I have
waited a long time for this–much too long a time." He
removed his jacket and his shirt. Turning to her he
was surprised to see she was frozen in one spot. "Your
clothes–off–take them off."
"No–No, Fidel–No!" she shouted.
Page 21
[photo caption] Photo shows Castro's first
meeting with
Marita (later his rape victim) and father aboard
Captain's ship.
Castro smiled, grabbed her in his arms and began to kiss
her. Now
she was really frightened. She scratched him, but he
only laughed. She screamed, "I never have–don't touch
me–I am a virgin."
"You must, Marita" he said, "I am the law."
When Marita refused, the strapping, 6'3" Prime Minister of
Cuba threw her on the bed. As she pleaded he began to
rip the clothes from her body. She fought and wept
hysterically.
Marita was terrified. Suddenly she reached for the
cross held on the chain around her neck. "Look at
this," she cried to him. "How can you look at the
cross and do this to me?"
Angrily he ripped the cross from her throat. "What do
I care for that? He answered.
He grabbed at her hungrily and proceeded to ravage her,
beating at her,
scratching her and painfully hurting her. Then the
agony ended and
Castro rose. My daughter was numb with fright and
shock.
Without a goodbye he left.
Marita could scarcely move. The beating and the weight
of his heavy body had caused a slipped disc in her
spine. She could not walk for three days. Her
pleas for a doctor again fell on deaf ears. Castro
himself returned to look at her and said he didn't want her
to have a doctor as he didn't want to have anyone know what
had happened.
When she was once again able to leave her bed and get
around, she tried
to leave her room but she was still under guard. She
was still without phone and letter writing priveleges.
After the first week of despair and her return to health,
Castro began to drop in on her at any hour of the day or
night. The food she was given was apparently drugged
as she was
much too weak to resist his advances and ravages.
Lonely, sick in spirit and mind and body she was frightened
and ashamed
at what had happened–too frightened to think of returning
home–if that were possible.
She didn't know what the future held in store for her and
she began to appeal to Castro to let her return home.
He laughed. On one occasion at sunrise, Castro
arrived, woke her from a fitful sleep and put a cha cha cha
record on the player. As the music throbbed through
the room there was the sound of gunfire outside. She
tried to run to the window, but Fidel Castro grabbed her and
began to dance.
"You beast! You are killing people outside."
"Only necessary executions," he replied.
"Why are you so cruel?"
"If you keep up that talk," he laughed, "I will make you
watch all the executions in Cuba."
Marita bit her lip and kept her silence. When she next
spoke it was not about executions; it was about religion.
"Don't you believe in God?" she asked, "You are a
Catholic. Don't you believe in the church?"
"In a dictatorship, the church has to go," he replied
matter-of-factly. Then he began to discuss marriage
with Marita. He promised to marry her. She now
felt it was the only way to erase the shame in her heart and
agreed to the proposal.
On the next day, two aides took her to a jeweler where she
was measured
for a large diamond ring. She never did receive it,
but awhile she
was under this illusion–she accompanied. Castro on his
triumphant trip to New York–under
(Continued on next page)
Page 22
[photo caption] Capt. Jesus Yanez Pelletier,
adjutant to Castro,
who supervised abortion that almost cost Marita's life.
CASTRO continued
armed guard.
In the privacy of the bedroom he began to refer to her as
his "child bride." Outside, only his close associates
knew of Marita. Strict orders were given to keep all
references of Marita out of the press as Castro did not want
any American newspapermen getting wind of an American girl
who had been held captive at the Havana Hilton, and was now
in New York as his prisoner.
Syndicated columnist Dorothy Kilgallen did make references
to the fact that Castro kept the daughter of a well-known
German sea captain at a hotel, but it was apparent she
didn't know Marita was American.
Some weeks after their return to Havana, Marita discovered
she was pregnant. "I don't believe you," roared Castro
and walked out. But from that day
on Castro's aides went to work on her. She was given
powerful purges and drugs in an effort to cause a
miscarriage. Often they left her on the floor weak from
retching faint from lack of food and frightened. She
would clutch her cross, her last hope, and confess to God
that, though her baby had been conceived in sin, she didn't
want to kill it.
Marita tried to leave the hotel once and Captain Jesus Yanez
Pelletier (a former lieutenant in Batista's army who was
cashiered because of his friendship to Castro) caught
her. Pointing his pistol, at her he said, "Get back to
your room!" He grabbed her arm and hissed, "You will
never leave Cuba alive with Fidel Castro's baby inside
you." He pulled her into her room, locked the door and
proceeded to beat her on the stomach. Then throwing
her on the bed he bounced on her swollen stomach until she
fainted
from the pain. My daughter and the unborn infant
survived.
During her pregnancy a few outsiders did come in contact
with Marita, despite the fact she was still a
prisoner. She was made a member of the 26th of July
Movement as a cover up and accepted as a "volunteer."
Marita was now being taken to the Hilton coffee shop for her
meals where she would speak English with Don Soldini, an
American youngster who had fought with Castro. Marita
didn't pay for her food; she just signed her name to the
bills.
She also became friendly with a Cuban family she met there
from time to
time. A final acquaintance was a Mr. El Sayed Reedy, a
United Arab
Republic delegate at the United Nations. He knew of
her plight, but
even when he returned to New York he refused to bring word
of her distress
to her family or the FBI. Today he refuses to
acknowledge he even met
her in Havana, though he has tried to date her since.
As her body increases noticeably in size, all privileges
were taken from Marita. Finally, when it was apparent
that drugs, beatings and fear would not force Castro's baby
from her body, Captain Yanez Pelletier and his
chauffeur, Pedro, drugged and then dragged Marita to the
doctor for her abortion.
Strange letters, written by others, not Marita, had started
reaching me. Frantic at having no word from my
daughter, I had arranged to come back to the United
States. Her brief letters, telling of illness and
hunger, frightened my husband and me. There was little
the Captain could do as he was again stricken with a heart
attack–this time while he was master of the new luxury
liner, Bremen.
We never realized that our little girl had been through a
nightmare and
that, suffering from a botched-up abortion, she was
hemorrhaging in a Havana
hotel without help from friends, family or even her
enemies. Marita
received no further medical treatment. She became
deathly ill when
infection began to set in.
Marita was at last allowed to return to New York. A
doctor discovered that her left ovary and the Fallopian tube
were infected. She was immediately put on antibiotics
and internal treatments.
During Marita's illness in November and December 1959, she
continued to
get phone calls from the members of the 26th of July
Movement in New York. She was threatened to the point
where she had to attend meetings and where she was
introduced as Fidel's girl."
A woman who called herself "Olga Blanco" called her
apartment daily at 8 a.m. and in the evening to check on
Marita. Olga said many times that if Marita went out
with another man Fidel would have her shot.
A woman named Stacia Sokolowska, a Castro agent, and another
who called
herself June Cobb, both offered me jobs in Cuba if I would
only agree to
bring my daughter with me. I have recorded these
conversations.
I also listened on the phone when Castro called Marita and
begged her to come "home" to him, giving as an excuse that
he feared his brother Raout [Raul]
and what Raoul [Raul] might do to him if the American press
or CONFIDENTIAL printed this story.
One day Castro reached my girl when I was not home and once
again he lured her down there. This time he said, she
could come to pick up he belongings and they would again
discuss marriage–he would, in the corny tradition, make an
"honest"woman of her.
Like the typically naive teen-ager she is, thinking that he
would possibly right the wrongs done her, she consented to
return to Havana. (Continued on page 44)
Page 44
FIDEL CASTRO (Continued from page 22)
Again Castro reneged on his promise. The moment Marita
arrived, she was whisked away to a remote mansion near a
Chinese cemetery. The house was full of Castro's
clothes and personal belongings. She was told she
had to wait for Castro's return from Oriente Province.
On December 8, 1959, after three days, she bribed a barbudo
with a $5. Bill and walked to her friends' home. From
there she called me in New York, told me she was a prisoner
once more and she would be killed if she tried to leave
Cuba. I told her to get to the U.S. Embassy at
once. Marita agreed to try and added, "If you don't
hear from me in 24 hours, please do something–anything–I
want to get away from here."
"Frantic when the time limit passed, I appealed to NBC for
help. I went on the Ray Heatherton broadcast and told
how my daughter was being held prisoner in Cuba. Then
for the next two days I called Castro, June Cobb
and every aide I could trying to reach Marita.
Everyone denied she
was in Havana. I threatened them all with exposure in
the American press.
Stacia Sokolowska finally called back. "You can't tell
that story–you can't do this to Fidel, it will ruin
him." She finally agreed
to send Marita home on the first plane. Where the U.S.
Embassy could
not help, the fear of exposure did and she was sent home,
but not before a
wild-eyed Yanez revealed that "your mother has gone to the
U.S. and German State Departments, the World Court and the
Pope."
Castro came to her a few minutes before the plane
left. "Where you go, my Marita?"
I'm going home and to church," she replied. "You
should go, too, and confess your sins."
In New York her abdominal pains increased. It was
operated now or
else–
Until she went to Roosevelt Hospital I continued to get
phone threats. But the worst blow of all came when
Marita, weak from loss of blood was coming out of
anesthesia, when Pedro Perez Fonte burst into her room and
began to shout. The nurse dragged him out.
Page 45
We disconnected our phone to stop all the threatening calls
from friends of Castro. But they still follow us and
corner us at any and every turn.
I hope this CONFIDENTIAL article will show them up for what
they are–merciless stooges of a dictator. They and
Castro ignored my demands that the lest
he could do was pay Marita's hospital bill.
But do these hoodlums mean business?
They do–for the poor doctor who bungled Marita's abortion,
Dr. Ferrer, has been executed in order to keep him from
talking.
I hope this story will expose Fidel Castro for what he is an
prevent other innocent girls from being trapped by this
monster.
End of Page
Copyright
1998-2014 Cuban Information Archives. All Rights
Reserved.
