By Sergio Martinez Gonzalez. Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba in Antigua and Barbuda.
In December 2022, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), together with Cuba, agreed to establish October 6 as CARICOM-Cuba Day against Terrorism. This decision serves as a tribute to the victims of the brutal terrorist attack against a Cuban commercial airliner, an event known worldwide as the “Barbados Crime.”
On October 6, 1976, Cuban-born terrorists based in South Florida, trained and under the orders of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), bombed a plane of Cubana Airline in mid-flight, killing 57 Cubans (including the young members of the national fencing team who were happily returning to their families after winning the gold medal in fencing at the Central American and Caribbean Games), 11 Guyanese, and 5 citizens of North Korea. The perpetrators of this crime were never brought to justice and lived freely until the end of their days under the protection of the U.S. government—the same government that cynically uses the pretext of fighting terrorism, to try to impose its imperialist interests on the rest of the world.
Cuba, a victim for over 60 years of all kinds of terrorist actions promoted by the United States that have left more than 3,000 families grieving, has maintained an unquestionable principled stance against the use of any act or type of terrorism as a means to achieve political, religious, or any other objectives, regardless of its origin. The island is part of the 19 international conventions on terrorism and incorporates this rejection into its legal and constitutional framework.
Terrorism remains one of the most terrible scourges facing humanity today. But in combating it, here can be not double standards. The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New york, attacks against Christian congregations, synagogues, or Muslim mosques are just as reprehensible, as the criminal acts of state terrorism where bombs are dropped on schools, killing hundreds of innocent children and threatening to destroy an entire civilization; or when simple fishermen are murdered with impunity in our Caribbean waters; or when the Israeli government, with the full support of the United States, carries out a genocidal policy of mass extermination against the entire Palestinian population.
It is also an act of state terrorism the cruel policy of collective punishment imposed by the US government on the entire Cuban people for over 60 years. This policy has been aggravated by the draconian energy blockade and others measures adopted by the current administration of Donald Trump, aimed at causing maximum hardship and suffering to the more than 10 million inhabitants of the largest of the Antilles. It is paradoxical and cynical that the United States government designates Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and includes it on an arbitrary and unilateral list, without any mandate from international organizations, when any impartial observer can determine which government actually encourages, supports, and tolerates terrorism and which country confronts and combats it, while also having been a victim of this scourge for over 60 years.
Combating and denouncing the scourge of terrorism is precisely what the political leaders of CARICOM and Cuba had in mind when they designated October 6 as the “CARICOM-Cuba Day Against Terrorism.” As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the “Barbados Crime,” let us once again raise our voices against all forms of terrorism, and especially against state terrorism. Only by putting an end to these barbaric acts the international community would be able to preserve peace and, in doing so, preserve humanity.