In Cuba, President Fidel Castro has weighed in for the first time on the CIA’s publication of its so-called “family jewels” last week. A trove of unearthed documents showed the CIA planned spy operations and attempts on Castro’s life, including a plot hatched with two wanted mobsters. In an editorial called “Killing Machine,” Castro writes: “Everything described in the documents is still being done, only in a more brutal manner around the entire planet, including an increasing number of illegal actions in the very United States.” Cuba’s National Assembly also reacted to the disclosures with a statement at its opening bi-annual session.

Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon: “The CIA documents reveal part of the attempts to assassinate our colleague Fidel Castro and to bring pain to our country. The cynical support given to Posada and the shameful punishment to our five anti-terrorist fighters is irrefutable evidence that those now recognized vile purposes are not a thing of the past and that they continue to be the current policies of the actual U.S. government.”

Castro’s chair was left symbolically empty as he continues to recover from intestinal surgery.