Castro in Guinness Book

[snopes]

Comment: I have seen several media outlets reporting on Fidel Castro
entering Guinness Records Book as the person surviving the most
assassination attempts, with 638 attempts from 1959 to 2006, that seems
impossible, and couldn't find anything on Guinness on line; a similar
rumor about Castro being the persong with the longest speech at UN, also
turned nothing on Guinness on line. Is there any truth about these
entries.

[Troberg]

Well, given that Castro has some of the best intelligence organizations in the world against him, I find it unlikely that they would fail that many times.

[Richard W]

I don't have a (post-2006) Guinness Book of Records to look at, but Guinness does verify the records they put in the book, and I can't see how you could verify the number of assassination attempts to set a definite standard figure.

(On the other hand, a lot of records these days seem to be based on the first person to bother to try to set a "record" for something silly, so if Guinness likes the idea they'll get in the book no matter how well they do, because nobody has tried before, or bothered to tell anybody if they did. So perhaps Castro just rang them up to ask if he could be in the book, and since nobody else had claimed a higher number, once they'd checked his number it was automatically top...)

[Mateus]

The Beeb says Castro spoke the longest before a General Assembly (and proclaims it to be in Guinness), and V.K. Krishna Menon the longest at the UN (in front of the Security Council).

Four hours and 29 minutes is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest speech in front of the General Assembly, given in September 1960 by Fidel Castro. The former Cuban leader is known for his interminable speeches - his longest on record in Cuba clocking up seven hours and 10 minutes at the 1986 Communist Party Congress.
Even that was topped, when at the UN Security Council in 1957, the Indian politician VK Krishna Menon talked for nearly eight hours defending India's position on Kashmir. (The transcript is on the UN website and runs to 160 pages.)

ETA: The transcript, for those of you with some free time.

[Right U R Ken]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: I have seen several media outlets reporting on Fidel Castro entering Guinness Records Book as the person surviving the most assassination attempts, with 638 attempts from 1959 to 2006, ,.

You would think after the first hundred or so security would get a little tighter.

[Morwen Edhelwen]

Originally Posted by Right U R Ken

You would think after the first hundred or so security would get a little tighter.

There's a reason why Fidel has body doubles substitute for him in public... or at least he did when he was Cuban president.

[Hummelcat]

Originally Posted by Richard W

I don't have a (post-2006) Guinness Book of Records to look at, but Guinness does verify the records they put in the book, and I can't see how you could verify the number of assassination attempts to set a definite standard figure.

from Morwen Edhelwen:

There's a reason why Fidel has body doubles substitute for him in public... or at least he did when he was Cuban president.

That's it! All Guinness needs to do is count the dead bodies! Or the folks still alive who look like Castro and have bullet holes in them.

[Alarm]

Originally Posted by Hummelcat

That's it! All Guinness needs to do is count the dead bodies! Or the folks still alive who look like Castro and have bullet holes in them.

It wouldn't work, they change back into their own forms after they die.



Were-Fidels!

[SatansHobbit]

In-Fidels?

Btw, the topic title gave me an image of Gandalf and Bulletmagnet chilling out with a couple of cigars whilst comparing beards.

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Originally Posted by Right U R Ken

You would think after the first hundred or so security would get a little tighter.

It may be they are very good in that they catches the would be assassins before they get the chance to kill Castro. I'm also sure some (if not most) were captured even before they knew they were going to kill Castro.

[Alarm]

Originally Posted by Singing in the Drizzle

It may be they are very good in that they catches the would be assassins before they get the chance to kill Castro. I'm also sure some (if not most) were captured even before they knew they were going to kill Castro.

[Cuban General walks into a home] You, you, you and you! You've been selected. You're the ones who are going to plan the grand leader's assasination attempt today... now take them away!
I love being in the counter-assasination business! Smells like victory!