Havana, October 6th, 2021.- Cuba commemorates this Wednesday the Day of the Victims of State Terrorism, in which it pays tribute to the more than 3,400 compatriots who died as a result of the aggressions of the United States.
The date commemorates the explosion in mid-flight of a Cubana de Aviación aircraft with 73 people on board after an explosive attack orchestrated in 1976 by the notorious terrorists Luis Posada Carriles (1928-2018) and Orlando Bosch (1926-2011), at the service of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The event, known as the Crime of Barbados, took the lives of the 24 members of the youth fencing team, who returned to their country after successfully competing in the IV Central American and Caribbean Championship of that sport, held in Venezuela. In total, 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and five Koreans died. This attack provoked international repudiation, and especially in Cuba, where millions of people united in multiplied pain, with an energetic and virile demand for justice. However, this was not the only act of State terrorism suffered by this Antillean nation, a victim of those actions forged from the United States over decades.
According to the document Demand of the Cuban people to the US government for economic damages, Washington's covert operations began in 1959, and since then thousands of acts of sabotage have been organized, executed, and financed. These include economic, military, biological, psychological, diplomatic, media and espionage attacks and attempts to assassinate leaders, to which is added the systematic resurgence of the 60-year-old blockade of that country, even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. , which reinforces its genocidal character. Examples of this policy include the arson of the El Encanto store on April 13, 1961, in which Fe del Valle lost his life; and the explosion of a bomb at the Copacabana Hotel, where the young Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo died.
At the dawn of the Revolution, the French steamship La Coubre was sabotaged, which left 101 dead, including six sailors from the Gallic country, as well as 400 people injured or incapacitated for life. According to press reports, at least 3,478 people died and 2,999 were affected as a result of Washington's violent plans against the island.