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. Castro controlled about 20 luxury homes, a Caribbean island getaway with a pool and dolphins, the 88-foot yacht Aquarama II, and several fishing vessels whose catch was sold for dollars deposited in his accounts, according to Sanchez. He lies," he adds. When Castro received a Cohiba cigar box full of Angolan diamonds, he told an aide to sell the gems on the international market “and you know what to do,” Sanchez said. He had sole control” over economic activity he estimated at “hundreds of millions of dollars” over 10 years. 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. “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,” says the book, written with Axel Gyldén, a senior journalist at L'Express magazine in France. “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,” Gyldén told journalists. 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 also controlled a complex of Havana buildings and grounds, including a basketball court, a fully equipped medical center and rooftop bowling alley, first established for him by one of his lovers and closest aides, the late Celia Sanchez. And each morning an aide delivered to him a bundle of reports on Cuban intelligence activities around the world plus international news reports. Castro moved about with at least 10 bodyguards, including two with matching blood types who could give him a direct transfusion in case of an emergency because he did not trust stored blood, according to the bodyguard.
– Fidel Castro was not the spartan Socialist he claimed to be, says a former bodyguard. In fact, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez writes in Fidel Castro's Hidden Life that Castro lived very much like a king, reports the Guardian and Miami Herald. Among the claims: Castro enjoyed a private island, Cayo Piedra, that Sanchez calls a "garden of Eden." Maybe because of the turtle farm and pool with dolphins. He sailed there in an 88-foot yacht, the Aquarama II, which was adorned with rare wood from Angola and four motors courtesy of Leonid Brezhnev. ("Castro would sit in his large black leather director's armchair ... a glass of Chivas Regal on the rocks in his hand," writes Sanchez.) He had about 20 luxury homes, including an estate in Havana with a bowling alley on the roof. He always traveled with 10 bodyguards, and two of them had to have his blood type in case he needed an emergency transfusion. Castro didn't trust stored blood. "Contrary to what he has always said, Fidel has never renounced capitalist comforts or chosen to live in austerity," writes Sanchez. "Au contraire, his mode de vie is that of a capitalist without any kind of limit. He has never considered that he is obliged by his speech to follow the austere lifestyle of a good revolutionary." Sanchez worked as a bodyguard for 17 years before falling out of favor after asking for retirement. He ended up in prison before escaping to Mexico and then to the US, where he now lives.