As on every October 6, Havana’s Colón Cemetery fills with relatives of the victims of the 1976 terrorist bombing of the Cubana airlines flight over Barbados. Once again, they demand an end to the impunity that those responsible have enjoyed for 39 years.
The date is an opportunity not only to remember those passengers, athletes and workers, who died in the attack, but all victims of terrorist acts against the island.
“A terrorist bomb, a killer bomb, like all bombs, transformed that plane into a symbol; a symbol of crime and siege, but that plane also strengthened a people in the midst of tears and anger, in the midst of the pain and outrage,” read Nile Jorge Prats Reyes, the grandson of Silvia Marta Pereira, who worked as an international flight attendant on the Cubana plane that the terrorists blew up midair.
The 17 year old also read a message from the Cuban Five to the victims’ relatives, noting that in order to avoid further tragedies such as this, “many Cubans left their homes and silently, in the enemy’s lair, weaved with their hands the defense of the homeland.”
Thalía Gattorno Espinosa is 12 years old. She never met her grandfather, Miguel Espinosa, as he was the co-pilot of that Cubana flight.
”The mastermind of this abominable crime lives peacefully in Miami and appears before the media in that city without showing any regret for the terrorist acts he committed and demonstrating his unconditional support for new attacks against the people of Cuba,” she said.
She also recalled the 3,478 Cubans who have been killed and the 2,099 who have suffered injuries and disabilities due to terrorist attacks on Cuban citizens, with the explicit support of previous U.S. administrations.
Accompanying the relatives were Omar Ruiz, member of the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee, Major General José A. Carrillo and Brigadier General Delsa Esther (Teté) Puebla, president and vice president of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, respectively.
(Granma)