[News] Raúl Castro’s speech on State Terrorism Victims’ Day

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Raúl Castro’s speech on State Terrorism Victims’ Day

Posted on 
<http://cubandemocracy.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/raul-castros-speech-on-state-terrorism-victims-day/>October 
7, 2010 by 
<http://cubandemocracy.wordpress.com/author/cubandemocracy/>cubandemocracy 
<http://cubandemocracy.wordpress.com/author/cubandemocracy/>GENUINE

Relatives of the victims of State Terrorism against Cuba,

Comrades:

As set out in the Council of State Decree-Law 
published today, beginning this year, October 6 
will be commemorated as “Victims of State Terrorism Day.”

Exactly 34 years ago, 73 innocent people were 
assassinated: 11 Guyanese, 5 citizens of the 
Democratic Popular Republic of Korea and 57 
Cubans. They were killed in midair when a bomb 
exploded aboard a Cubana de Aviación passenger 
plane that had just taken off from Barbados. 
Among them were 24 young Cubans from the national 
youth fencing team who had just swept all the 
gold medals at the Fourth Central-American and 
Caribbean Championships held in Venezuela.

For the Cuban people, who have been the target of 
state terrorism since the very triumph of the 
Cuban Revolution, the painful losses suffered 
that day were added to the numerous other victims 
for whom we are still seeking justice today.

The phenomenon dates back to 1959 when the 
newly-formed Revolution passed the first of a 
series of measures to benefit the people.

As early as March 1960, President Eisenhower 
approved a program of covert actions against Cuba 
that were declassified a few years ago. The U.S. 
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) took over the 
lead role in planning, logistics, and the 
recruiting and training of mercenaries to carry 
out terrorist actions under the protection of the U.S. Government.

Fires, bombings and all sorts of acts of sabotage 
were carried out; airplanes and boats were 
hijacked; Cuban citizens were kidnapped; there 
were attacks against our embassies and 
assassinations of diplomats; dozens of our 
facilities were machine-gunned; multiple 
assassination attempts were carried out against 
the main leaders of the Revolution; and in 
particular, hundreds of assassination plans and 
attempts were carried out against the life of the Commander in Chief.

This year we are commemorating five decades since 
the brutal sabotage against the French steamship 
La Coubre in the port of Havana. The attack was 
planned to set off a double detonation of 
explosive charges that would greatly increase the 
number of victims. This crime caused the death of 
101 people and left hundreds injured, including members of the French crew.

Every new aggression strengthened the Revolution 
across all sectors and levels. The consolidation 
of the revolutionary process forced the CIA 
terrorists and their bosses ­who with their 
actions intended to provoke panic and demoralize 
the Cuban people­ to draw up a plan to invade 
Cuba and create, in Florida, the largest 
intelligence center outside of their main headquarters in Langley.

The attack against Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) 
caused the death of 176 compatriots and left 50 
others permanently disabled. The sacrifice of 
these citizens helped our impassioned combatants 
defeat the invasion in less than 72 hours, 
preventing the arrival of a puppet government 
that was being safeguarded by the CIA in a 
military base in Florida. After arriving in Cuba, 
their plan was to request the intervention of the 
United States with the complicity of the OAS.

The recently elected President Kennedy inherited 
the invasion plan from the previous government 
and approved its implementation. However, he 
refused to accept responsibility for its 
resounding failure and instead decided to carry 
out Operation Mongoose that consisted of 33 
projects that included plans to assassinate 
leaders of the Revolution, terrorist actions 
against socioeconomic objectives, and the 
introduction of arms and agents to Cuba to be 
used in espionage and subversive activities.

 From the approval of the Operation Mongoose 
until January 1963, some 5,780 terrorist actions 
against Cuba have been carried out: 716 of which 
were full-scale sabotages against industrial facilities.

In this context, US-based terrorist organizations 
that were financed and protected by the CIA were 
the precursors to the use of airplane hijackings 
and civilian aircraft for military actions against Cuba.

Such actions soon turned against them, leading to 
a world pandemic of airplane hijackings which 
encouraged international terrorists to employ 
these methods. The situation was only resolved 
once the Cuban government unilaterally decided to return the hijackers.

Following the assassination of Kennedy, the new 
US president, Lyndon Johnson, continued with 
terrorist plans against the island. Between 1959 
and 1965, the CIA organized, financed and 
supplied, from US territory, an estimated 229 
armed counter-revolutionary groups, and some 
3,995 mercenaries. These terrorists killed 549 
Cuban combatants, farmers and teachers working in 
the national literacy campaign; and left 
thousands wounded and hundreds permanently disabled.

Shortly after, terrorist actions against Cuban 
embassies, offices and diplomatic officials 
abroad increased drastically causing the deaths 
of several brave comrades and many material losses.

On September 11, 1980, the Cuban representative 
at the UN, Félix García Rodríguez, was murdered 
by Cuban-born terrorist Eduardo Arocena, a member 
of the terrorist group “Omega 7.”

On May 5 that year 570 children and 156 workers 
were trapped by a fire set by terrorists at the 
Le Van Tan daycare center. These peoples lives 
were saved thanks to the quick and heroic actions 
by specialized forces and the solidarity of the Cuban people.

At the same time, another form of State Terrorism 
employed against Cuba is biological warfare 
developed by successive U.S. administrations. 
These methods included introducing diseases into 
Cuba that significantly affected the health of 
the Cuban people. In 1981, agents under the 
service of the U.S. government disseminated the 
hemorragic dengue epidemic that killed 156 people, including 101 children.

Several plagues were also introduced into Cuban 
territory to destroy the agriculture and 
livestock sector, causing incalculable losses in 
food stocks destined for the population and 
significant losses of export commodities.

The U.S. intelligence services, particularly the 
CIA, were directly or indirectly involved in the 
majority of these actions, in large part under 
the umbrella of Cuban counterrevolutionary 
organizations. It would be impossible to mention 
the endless chain of terrorist plans, actions and 
attacks committed against our country in just one address.

However, the list of perpetrators is quite short, 
because they are always the same.

Today we are here to pay tribute to the 3,478 
Cubans who have died and the 2,099 that have 
become permanently disabled due to terrorist acts 
carried out against our homeland during half a 
century that add up 5,577 victims. The Barbados 
martyrs are part of the long list of fallen 
comrades who we have not forgotten nor ever will forget.

Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, the 
authors of the Barbados crime and countless 
others against Cuba have lived and still live 
with impunity in Miami. Bosch, thanks to an 
executive pardon given by Bush Sr. the CIA 
director when Bosch´s agents committed sabotage 
against the Cuban plane; and Posada Carriles, 
thanks to the support of Bush Jr., walks freely 
while he awaits a trial for minor offences and 
not for the multiple charges of international 
terrorism that correspond to him.

Until very recently, these groups publicly 
proclaimed their crimes and cynically announced new acts of terror.

Had impunity not prevailed, 68 acts of terrorism 
against Cuba would have been prevented in the 
1990s and we would not be regretting the death in 
Havana of Fabio di Celmo, a young Italian, who 
perished during the wave of terrorists attacks 
against tourism facilities in Havana in 1997.

The revealing declarations by self-confessed 
terrorist Chávez Abarca –broadcasted on Cuban 
television September 27 and 28– who was arrested 
by Venezuelan authorities as he planned to attack 
and undermine the stability of that brother 
country and other Latin American nations, confirm 
the existence of new methods of international 
terror and provide irrefutable proof about the 
guilt of Posada Carriles and his sponsors in the United States.

Despite all these crimes, Cuba has always been an 
example in the fight against terrorism and has 
ratified the condemnation of all such acts, in 
all its forms and manifestations.

Our country has signed all 13 existing 
international conventions on this issue and 
strictly abides by the commitments and 
obligations of the UN General Assembly 
resolutions and those of the Security Council. It 
does not possess nor intends to possess any type 
of weapons of mass destruction, and fully 
complies with its obligations under existing 
international instruments on nuclear, chemical , and biological weapons.

The Cuban territory has never been and never will 
be used to organize, finance or carry out 
terrorist acts against any other country, including the United States.

On several occasions the Cuban government has 
informed the U.S. Government about its 
willingness to exchange information regarding 
assassination plans and terrorist acts against objectives in both countries.

We have also provided ample information to the 
U.S. Government on terrorist acts against Cuba, 
particularly between 1997 and 1998 when we 
provided the FBI with abundant evidence on the 
bombings of several Cuban tourists resorts, and 
even gave them access to the perpetrators of 
these crimes, under arrest here, as well as to several witnesses.

In response, the FBI in Miami, closely linked to 
the Cuban-American extreme right that openly 
sponsors terrorism against Cuba, concentrated all 
of its efforts on chasing and prosecuting our 
fellow citizens Antonio, Fernando, Gerardo, 
Ramón, and Rene whom the US Government should 
have never arrested and imprisoned.

Today, thanks to international solidarity, the 
entire world knows about the unjust and inhumane 
treatment applied to the Five Cuban Heroes who 
fought in order to protect the Cuban people and 
even the American people from terrorism.

For how long will President Obama ignore 
international demands and allow injustice to 
prevail, something that is in his hands to 
eliminate? Until when will our Five Cuban Heroes remain in jail?

The current government of the United States of 
America, by their recent ratification of the 
arbitrary inclusion of our country in the State 
Department‘s annual list of “States Sponsors of 
Terrorism,” in addition to this infamous measure, 
has ignored once again the exemplary records of Cuba in this respect.

The United States of America also has disregarded 
the cooperation received from Cuba. In three 
occasions (November and December 2001, and March 
2002) our representatives proposed to the U.S. 
authorities a draft project for bilateral 
cooperation to fight against terrorism, and in 
July 2009 reiterated their willingness to 
cooperate in this area without ever receiving a response.

The Cuban Government urges President Obama to 
abide with his commitment to fight terrorism and 
to act with determination and without double 
standards against those who from U.S. territory 
have perpetrated and continue to perpetrate 
terrorist acts against Cuba. This would be an 
honorable response to the open letter published 
today and sent by the Committee of Relatives of 
the Victims of the Cubana airplane that was blown 
up midair over the coast of Barbados.

Not for a moment can we forget that, as a result 
of State terrorism, the toll of dead and missing 
people we have suffered is higher than those who 
died during the attempt against the Twin Towers 
and the Oklahoma bombing combined.

I would like to conclude our tribute by recalling 
the unforgettable memorial service given to the 
victims of the Barbado`s crime on October 15, 
1976, when we all swore to remember and condemn 
with unrelenting outrage the vile assassination.

Let us repeat Comrade Fidel`s statement on that occasion:
When an energetic and forceful people cry, injustice trembles!
We shall always remain loyal to those who have fallen in battle!

Glory to our heroes and martyrs!




Freedom Archives
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415 863-9977

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