The Agent?
The People's Champion Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala was dead, murdered in clinical fashion by an assassin. Some conservative opponents took advantage of the presence in Bogotá of a young Cuban who would later go on to lead the resistance to the corrupt regime of playboy dictator Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro Ruz. Castro, according to the accusations, was not only in Colombia, but was a low-level agent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), but even if that was true, what was his task?

Castro's job was to persuade Gaitán to abandon his beliefs and become a communist. Even if Castro was an agent and that was his task, it was ludicrous to put it mildly. Why would the USSR believe that a low level agent who had nothing on, or influence over, Gaitán would be able to persuade Gaitán to abaandon his beliefs and join their cause when Gaitán was clearly winning the battle for the hearts and minds of the Colombian people anyway?

If there was any wish to try, they would surely need someone that Gaitán trusted and respected as an equal. Castro could not possibly have been that in 1948. Gaitán had no reason to change his course then. If there was any recruiting to be done, it was more likely that the skilled orator Gaitán would recruit the Cubans to his cause than the other way round if indeed they had come to try to do that.

Ludicrous
At 21 years-old Castro had certainly not completed the develpment of his political philosophy. It would undergo considerable changes in the decade after the assassination of Gaitán and indeed be profoundly influenced by it and its aftermath. Castro was, at the time a Cuban nationalist, opposed to Batista. His political beliefs at the time were known and he would remain more nationalist than socialist until after the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship.

Castro did not fit the profile for a useful Soviet agent capable of turning Gaitán to the Soviet cause in 1948. At that time he was no Rómulo Betancourt or Gaitán and had shown no particular inclination towards sympathising with the USSR. There was little reason for Castro to want to be a Soviet agent at that time, or for the USSR to want him, especialy for such a big task.

Furthermore, Castro's beliefs at that time were closer to Gaitán's than those of the USSR. He had met Gaitán two days previously and was set to meet him again. There is no evidence that he had tried and failed to recruit Gaitán to the Soviet cause, especially as there was absolutely no possibility that Gaitán could be persuaded to such a cause.

Gaitán had a propensity for exposing attempts to recruit him to causes he did not want to follow Gaitán. He even accused Betancourt of offering to provide funds and arms for him to lead a left-wing revolution in Colombia. If Castro had tried to recruit him, why didn't  Gaitán or anyone close to him expose this at the time or verify it after the accusations were made? That wasthe beginning of the conspiracy involving Castro and it did not stand up. Undeterred the conspiracy theorists moved it to the next stage. Having failed to recruit Gaitán, they decided to kill him to extend Soviet influence. Why would they think killing Gaitán was a good idea and would achieve those ends?

The Alleged Plan
The plan, it was alleged, was for Soviet influence in the Caribbean to be increased and that Castro had tried and failed to recruit Gaitán to that cause several times. After his failure Castro had to eliminate Gaitán and was even accused of being the actual shooter. It was well known that despite his leftist beliefs Gaitán was not a communist and even if the absurd plan existed, there is no reason for Castro to have been invoved.

His Youth Congress needed Gaitán and his benefactor for the Congress, Juan Perón, was hardly likely to be pleased with Castro assassinating the likely keynote speaker. Why would Castro alienate his benefactor? And why woulod he kill a man he admired and needed to reach a wider constituency. There is no reason to believe that Castro, who admired Gaitán and knew that the latter's influence in Colombia and indeed elsewhere was sorely needed, would have had anything but great respect for Colombia's Champion of the left.

He needed Gaitán alive for his actual cause – the Youth Congres. The Cuban delegation wanted Gaitán to give credibiity to the Youth Congress by addressing it – support they were likely to get. They had met two days earlier and an appointment for another meeting had been scheduled for that very afternoon. Why would they want Gaitán dead before the meeting that would probably have given them the very thing they wanted? Nevertheless, that was not allowed to stop a good conspiracy from developing.