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<h1><font size=4><b>Raúl Castro’s speech on State Terrorism Victims’
Day</b></font></h1><font size=3>Posted on
<a href="http://cubandemocracy.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/raul-castros-speech-on-state-terrorism-victims-day/">
October 7, 2010</a> by
<a href="http://cubandemocracy.wordpress.com/author/cubandemocracy/">
cubandemocracy
</a><a href="http://cubandemocracy.wordpress.com/author/cubandemocracy/">
GENUINE<br><br>
</a>Relatives of the victims of State Terrorism against Cuba,<br><br>
Comrades:<br><br>
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.” <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
The phenomenon dates back to 1959 when the newly-formed Revolution passed
the first of a series of measures to benefit the people. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
However, the list of perpetrators is quite short, because they are always
the same. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
Until very recently, these groups publicly proclaimed their crimes and
cynically announced new acts of terror.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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?<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Let us repeat Comrade Fidel`s statement on that occasion:<br>
When an energetic and forceful people cry, injustice trembles!<br>
We shall always remain loyal to those who have fallen in battle!<br><br>
Glory to our heroes and martyrs!<br><br>
<br><br>
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