卡斯特羅前保鏢出書揭祕其過國王般生活大綱

Fidel Castro lived like a king with his own private yacht, a luxury Caribbean island getaway complete with dolphins and a turtle farm, and travelled with two personal blood donors, a new book claims.

In La Vie Cachée de Fidel Castro (Fidel Castro's Hidden Life), former bodyguard Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, a member of Castro's elite inner circle, says the Cuban leader ran the country as his personal fiefdom like a cross between a medieval overlord and Louis XV.

Sánchez, who was part of Castro's praetorian guard for 17 years, describes a charismatic and intelligent but manipulative, cold-blooded, egocentric Castro prone to foot-stamping temper tantrums. He claims the vast majority of Cubans were unaware their leader enjoyed a lifestyle beyond the dreams of many Cubans and at odds with the sacrifices he demanded of them.

"Contrary to what he has always said, Fidel has never renounced capitalist comforts or chosen to live in austerity. Au contraire, his mode de vie is that of a capitalist without any kind of limit," he writes. "He has never considered that he is obliged by his speech to follow the austere lifestyle of a good revolutionary."

Sánchez claims he suffered Castro's ruthlessness first hand when he fell out of favour, was branded a traitor, "thrown in jail like a dog", tortured and left in a cockroach infested cell, after asking to retire. Released from prison, Sánchez followed the well-worn route of Cuban exiles to America in 2008. "Until the turn in the 1990s I'd never asked too many questions about the workings of the system … that's the problem with military people … as a good soldier, I did my job and my best and that was enough to make me happy," he writes.

The book, published on Wednesday, has been written with French journalist Axel Gyldén, a senior reporter at L'Express magazine. Gyldén admits Sánchez has a large axe to grind with Castro, but insists he has checked the Cuban's story.

"This is the first time someone from Castro's intimate circle, someone who was part of the system and a first-hand witness to these events, has spoken. It changes the image we have of Fidel Castro and not just how his lifestyle contradicts his words, but of Castro's psychology and motivations," Gyldén told the Guardian.

This is not the first time it has been claimed that Castro enjoys great wealth. In 2006 Forbes magazine listed the Cuban leader in its top 10 richest "Kings, Queens and Dictators", citing unnamed officials who claimed Castro had amassed a fortune by skimming profits from a network of state-owned companies. The Cuban leader vehemently denied the report.

Castro's long reign ended in 2006 when he was stricken with what was believed to be diverticulitis, an intestinal ailment, and handed power to his younger brother Raúl, who had served as defence minister. He officially ceded power to Raúl in 2008.

Fidel continued penning columns for the Communist party newspaper Granma but gradually vanished from public view, fuelling rumours he had died, only to surface for occasional, fleeting appearances. Raul has made cautious economic reforms but kept tight control.

Visitors such as Ignacio Ramonet, the French journalist who has interviewed Castro at length, have depicted an austere lifestyle of reading, exercise, simple meals and modest home comforts.

But Sánchez, now 65 and living in America, claims Castro enjoyed a private island – Cayo Piedra, south of the Bay of Pigs, scene of the failed CIA-sponsored invasion of 1961 – describing it as a "garden of Eden" where he entertained selected guests including the writer Gabríel Garcia Márquez, and enjoyed spear-fishing.

The former bodyguard says Castro sailed to the island on his luxury yacht, the Aquarama II, fitted out with rare Angolan wood and powered by four motors sent by the Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev.

"Castro would sit in his large black leather director's armchair ... a glass of Chivas Regal on the rocks (his favourite drink) in his hand," writes Sánchez.

Other presidential properties, he writes, included an "immense" estate in Havana complete with rooftop bowling alley, basketball court and fully equipped medical centre, and a luxury bungalow with private marina on the coast.

"Fidel Castro also let it be known and suggested that the revolution gave him no rest, no time for pleasure and that he ignored, indeed despised, the bourgeois concept of holidays. He lies," he adds.

Ann Louise Bardach, a veteran Cuba chronicler who has interviewed Castro, said that as a lifelong hypochondriac he enjoyed the best food and medical care but did not have a lavish lifestyle. He was born into money and went into politics for power, she said. "He didn't do it for the money. He's not swinging from the chandeliers."

His current home, just outside Havana, had four bedrooms and would in the west be considered middle or upper-middle class, she said. Focusing on any material advantage he may enjoy missed a larger point, said Bardach, author of Without Fidel: a death foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington. "He owns the island of Cuba. It's his personal fiefdom."

Sánchez says Castro's dolce vita was a "crazy privilege" while Cubans suffered serious hardship in the 1990s as the economy "collapsed like a house of cards" after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and eastern bloc with which Havana had done almost 80% of its foreign business.

His compatriots, he says, were also unaware of their leader's complicated love life, his womanising and subsequent tribe of at least nine children, not least because Cuban media was forbidden to mention them.

Sánchez says for nearly two decades he saw more of Castro than his own family. "He was a god. I drank all his words, believed all he said, followed him everywhere and would have died for him," he writes.

He claims he finally realised that Castro considered Cuba "belonged" to him.

"He was its master in the manner of a 19th century landowner. For him wealth was above all an instrument of power, of political survival, of personal protection."

Recalling how Castro kept Angolan diamonds in a Cohiba cigar box, he writes: "Sometimes, Fidel had a little of the mentality of a pirate of the Caribbean."據《衛報》報道，卡斯特羅前任保鏢在其出版的新書中寫道：菲德爾·卡斯特羅在一個奢侈的加勒比度假島嶼上過着如同國王一般的生活，他擁有自己的遊艇，島上有很多海豚和一個海龜養殖場。他常帶着兩位私人獻血者一同出遊。

Juan Reinaldo Sánchez在《菲德爾·卡斯特羅的隱祕生活》一書中寫道，卡斯特羅把整個國家看做自己的領地，他本人更像是中世紀君主和路易十五的結合體。

Sánchez曾是卡斯特羅的貼身保鏢的一員，這份工作他幹了17年，他在書中描繪出一個具有超凡魅力與智慧，但控制慾過強，冷血，以自我爲中心、易怒的人物形象。他說大部分古巴人都不知道他們的領導人過着很多人做夢都想象不到的生活，有時還會要求他們犧牲自己的利益。

“菲德爾的所作所爲完全與他一貫的說法相悖。他從未放棄過資產階級的舒適生活或者是選擇樸素的生活。相反，他過的完全是資本主義式的生活，沒有絲毫節制。”他在書中寫道。“他完全沒想過自己應該按照他的講話中那樣，過一個革命者該過的簡樸生活。”

Sánchez稱自己申請退休，卻被歸爲叛徒，切切實實感受到了卡斯特羅的冷酷無情。“像只狗一樣被送進監獄”，在一個滿是蟑螂的牢房裏備受折磨。出獄後，他走了一條古巴流放人員走的老路——於2008年逃往美國。“如果不是因爲90年代出了事，我永遠也不會質疑現在的體系，這就是當一個好的士兵要面臨的問題，我盡力做好了本職工作，那就足以令我感到開心了。”

這本書5月14日正式出版，由法國《快訊》雜誌資深記者阿克塞爾·格萊登執筆。格萊登承認Sánchez的確對卡斯特羅懷有很多個人情緒，但他也已經覈實或古巴的有關史料。

“這是卡斯特羅的小圈子裏，也是這整個體系裏見證那些事情站出來發聲的第一人。這完全改變了我們隊菲德爾·卡斯特羅的既定印象，不僅僅是證明他的言行有多不一致，我們對他的心理和動機想法也產生了懷疑。”格萊登接受《衛報》訪問時說道。

卡斯特羅擁有鉅額財富這件事並不是第一次被提及。2006年福布斯排行榜就把卡斯特羅列爲全世界10大最富有的“國王，王后和獨裁者”之一，這出自一位未透漏姓名的官員的原話，他說卡斯特羅從國營公司系統中攫取利益，積攢了鉅額財富。卡斯特羅本人則強烈否認這一說法。

2006年，卡斯特羅的長期統治終於結束，那時他換上了憩室炎——一種腸內疾病，將權力移交給了胞弟勞爾，之前他一直擔任國防大臣。2008年，他正式將權力移交給勞爾。

菲德爾仍爲共產黨報紙Granma撰寫專欄，但已經漸漸消失於公衆視線之外，這使得他死亡的謠言甚囂塵上，他只是偶爾短暫的在公衆前露面。勞爾一直謹慎地進行着經濟改革，但仍控制得很緊。

法國記者伊納希歐·哈莫內曾長期採訪卡斯特羅，在他筆下，卡斯特羅遵循着一種簡樸的生活方式，包括讀書，鍛鍊，簡餐和樸素的家居。

但現年65歲，居住在美國的Sánchez堅稱卡斯特羅有一座私人島嶼——位於豬灣以南的卡約·皮埃德拉，曾有人將這裏形容爲“伊甸園”。他在這裏或是會見貴客，或是用魚叉捕魚.

他寫道，總統的其它財產還包括哈瓦那的一處“佔地面積巨大的”房產，房頂上有保齡球館，還有籃球場，設施齊全的醫療中心。他還有一座奢侈的小屋，岸邊就有私人船塢。

“菲德爾·卡斯特羅想讓世人明白，他一直忙於革命，沒有時間休息和享受，他一直忽視這一點，而實際上也是鄙視這種資產階級的享受假期的思想。但他撒謊了。”他在書裏補充道。

古巴資深記者安·路易斯·巴達克也曾採訪過卡斯特羅，她說他的確享受着頂級的美食和醫療服務，但他的生活並不奢靡。他的家族本就富有，從政是因爲權力，而不是因爲錢財。

Sánchez還說，90年代，蘇聯解體，東歐集團瓦解，而古巴也失去了80%的對外貿易額，遭遇嚴重困難。此時卡斯特羅仍然過着奢侈的生活，這是一種“瘋狂的特權”。而古巴人也沒有注意到卡斯特羅複雜的感情生活，他好近女色，至少有9個孩子，而古巴媒體往往避談這一點。

Sánchez回憶道，至少有20年，他跟卡斯特羅在一起的時間比跟自己家人在一起的時間還要多。“他就是神。我相信他說的一切，跟隨他去各個地方，也願意爲他而死。”

但後來他才明白卡斯特羅一直認爲古巴是“屬於”他的。

“他就像19世紀的地主一樣，認爲財富是獲得權力，在政治鬥爭中生存下來和進行自我保護的武器。”

最後他回想起卡斯特羅把安哥拉鑽石放進高斯巴雪茄盒裏的情景，寫道：“有時，卡斯特羅還懷有跟加勒比海盜一樣的心態。”