CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

On 4 October 2001, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the destruction in mid-air, by a terrorist act, of a Cubana Airlines passenger plane off the coast of Barbados, the National Assembly of People's Power of the Republic of Cuba issued the following statement

"A quarter of a century ago, Cuba suffered a treacherous and loathsome crime which shook the entire nation and still haunts the collective memory of the people.

On 6 October 1976, a Cubana Airlines airplane was sabotaged in a cowardly manner and blew up in mid-air off the coast of Barbados, killing all the passengers and crew, including the young winners of the Central American and Caribbean fencing championship and a group of Guyanese students. The 73 innocent victims are still waiting for justice to be done. The main perpetrators have yet to be punished and are still engaged in a life of crime which has lasted for over four decades.

Those who conceived, planned and led the genocidal action had a long history of terrorism, going back to the 1960s, when they began practicing it while on the CIA payroll. Their responsibility for blowing up the Cuban aircraft and killing, in cold blood, all the passengers and crew is known to the United States Government, which possesses information it is keeping secret. The Department of Justice of that country acknowledged this in an official document dated 23 June 1989.

Despite the infamous background of these terrorists, including serious crimes committed on North American territory, the negative decision of the Attorney General, and the opposition of major media in the United States, one of the terrorists, Orlando Bosch, has been living there - thanks to then President George Bush - for over ten years, and no one bothers him as he continues to practise his evil occupation. On 22 August 2001, he and other well-known terrorists, knowing that they enjoy total impunity and have the support of the so-called Cuban American National Foundation, published a full-page ad in a Miami newspaper announcing that they would continue using every means and method at their disposal against Cuba, without excluding terrorism and violence.

The other perpetrator, Luis Posada Carriles, escaped from a Venezuelan jail where he was awaiting trial in the case of the Cuban aircraft, and immediately went to work for the White House. He received his orders directly from Oliver North, in connection with covert activities the United States was conducting in Central America. He subsequently led the bombings of several tourist facilities in Cuba and planned an assassination attempt against President Fidel Castro and thousands of Panamanian students during the Ibero-American Summit held there in 2001. He is currently under arrest in Panama on minor charges, trusting that his friends will once again guarantee his escape and impunity.

The entire world has rejected the brutal attack of 11 September; the United Nations has adopted resolutions condemning it, and governments have stated their determination to punish similar actions and prevent them from happening again. The National Assembly, together with all of Cuba, has also condemned the attack and has expressed its full solidarity with the North American people. At the same time, Cuba demands that the fight against terrorism be authentic and that there be a true willingness to eliminate it everywhere and in all its forms and manifestations.

Thousands of Cubans have lost their lives or suffered irreparable harm as a result of the vandalic acts perpetrated against Cuba for over forty years by groups that have operated and are operating on United States territory, where the authorities have either been their accomplices or tolerated them. Cuba, for its part, has never resorted to such despicable methods nor has it ever used force, not even to punish the bandits who, working from abroad, have committed countless atrocities against our people. We have always followed a policy based on principles. We defend ourselves without ever violating the ethics or the principles of international law. Moreover, we have tried to get the Government in Washington to fulfil its duty to prevent such actions and we have even supplied them with information obtained through the generous sacrifice of heroic compatriots like the five Cubans who are now unjustly imprisoned in Miami.

We have reasons, and we have the moral strength necessary, to demand that justice be done with regard to the crime of 6 October 1976 - to demand that the international fight against terrorism be sincere, consistent, without double standards, without racist discrimination, without hegemonic arrogance, without fraudulent manipulation. That is the only way this scourge can be completely eradicated. That is the only way to pay homage to its victims everywhere.

Twenty-five years ago, we came together like a big family to share the deep sorrow we felt at the cruelty that had cut off the lives of our brothers and sisters. We swore then that they would always be in our hearts, that we would never forget them. And they have indeed been with us, day by day, in the sacrifice and the exploits, in the dignity and the creative stamina of their people.

We shall continue denouncing their murderers and demanding that they be punished. We shall continue fighting, inseparable and united, to defend the Homeland and ensure that a free, independent Cuba, a country where justice and solidarity prevail, remains standing as a permanent tribute to them and to all our martyrs."

 

 

 

 

 

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