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Prominent intellectuals, academics, artists and social activists of seven islands that make up the Caribbean Chapter of the International Network In Defence of Humanity held a fruitful meeting during their participation in the program of activities commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Crime of Barbados in 1976. After starring in the launch of the global campaign for the UN to declare the 6 October as the International Day against Terrorism, its annual meeting focused on developing an action plan to carry out the campaign.

Just before her speech on behalf of the Barbadian government, the Hon. Maxine McClean, Minister of Foreign Relations and Foreign Trade, laid a wreath at the monument erected to the victims of crime in Paynes Bay, accompanied by Camilo Rojo, representative of the Committee of the Families of Victims, who follow the Minister making similar action together with the rest of the Cuban delegation that attended the commemoration, led by Cuban Hero Fernando Gonzalez, vice president of ICAP and one of the infamous Case of the Cuban Five.

Forty years ago today, on October 6, 1976, Cubana Airlines flight CU 455 succumbed to a proven act of terrorism, with the loss of life of Cuban nationals, Guyanese nationals and nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Terrorism in its modern form has been therefore known in the English-speaking Caribbean for at least 40 years and its impact still reverberates with us today. The arrests in Trinidad and Tobago following the act and the trial in Venezuela, pointed directly to the perpetrators, who have never been punished in a manner consistent with their horrible crime.

The US actor and social activist, Danny Glover, the Cuban Hero, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, the son of a crew member who died in the terrorist attack on the flight CU-455 of Cubana, Camilo Rojo, and the Barbadian lawyer David Comissiong, President of Clement Payne Movement and Coordinator of the Caribbean Chapter of the International Network in Defense of Humanity, joined a panel discussion dedicated to the youth and students of the island.