him "Fidel Castro's most persistent would-be assassin, while Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive referred to him as "one of the most dangerous terrorists in recent history" and the "godfather of Cuban exile violence." Early years (1928–1968) Posada was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on February 15, 1928. His family was relatively affluent. He had four siblings. The family moved to Havana when Posada was 17 years old, where he studied medicine and chemistry at the University of Havana. In 1956, he and Antonio Garcia established a pest control enterprise in Cienfuegos called Servicios Exterminadores Fumigadores de Insectos. The station wagon used for their business was destroyed by a bomb while parked on the street on the night of January 3, 1957. Posada worked in 1958 as a supervisor for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. He worked initially in Havana, and was transferred to Akron, Ohio, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. As a student, he had come in contact with Fidel Castro, who had become a figure of some significance in the student politics of the time. Posada later said that Castro was three years ahead of him at the university. Misgivings about the Cuban revolution led Posada to become an activist in open opposition to the new government. After a spell in a military prison, Posada sought political asylum in Mexico. By 1961, Posada had relocated to the United States where he helped to organize the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. The rest of Posada's family remained in Cuba, and continued to support the Cuban revolution; Posada's sister eventually rose to the rank of Colonel in the Cuban army. When asked in a 1998 interview why he had opposed the Revolution, he stated "All communists are the same. All are bad, a form of evil." Posada was stationed in Guatemala, where he was supposed to participate in a second wave of landings in Cuba. The initial attack on Cuban soil failed, and the operation was called off before Posada's force was to take part. After the failure at the Bay of Pigs, Posada attended officer candidate school at the United States Army's facility in Fort Benning. There, he was trained by the CIA in sabotage and explosives between March 1963 and March 1964. While at Fort Benning, he served in the same platoon as Jorge Mas Canosa, later the founder of the Cuban American National