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Cuba must back claims of
Terrorism.
February 7, 2006, Summit, New Jersey. Yesterday in Havana, the Cuban
government declared that 3,478 Cubans had been victims of state
terrorism sponsored by the United States. Cuba Archive has been unable
to corroborate this claim with verifiable data.
In 2002, the Cuban government claimed that “more than 3,000 terrorist
acts” had been committed against Cuban citizens,” and attributed them
all to the United States. At the time, Armando Lago, Ph.D., Research
Director for Cuba Archive, reviewed the only document publicly available
to substantiate the claims. An inquiry to the Cuban government for
information was referred to this document. Following are his
conclusions:
1. The names of only 46 victims were cited. 20 had never appeared in
previous known publications of the Cuban government; 26 were known cases
already documented by Dr.Lago. Data given for many of the victims –such
as names and dates- contained discrepancies with other publications
sanctioned by the Cuban regime.
2. Cuba classifies two military/combat events as terrorist attacks
against civilians. Of the 551 incidents cited, 400 took place at the Bay
of Pigs. This was a military invasion by Cuban exiles seeking freedom
and democracy for the people of Cuba that was financed and supported by
the U.S. government. Other cited incidents occurred during the Escambray
civil war. This internal uprising against the Castro dictatorship took
place in the early 1960s and was led by small farmers resisting
confiscation of their land by force by the Castro government. The United
States government delivered some material support to local insurgents
fighting military forces of the Castro regime.
3. Cuba Archive has not found direct involvement by the U.S. government
in the extrajudicial assassination of Cuban civilians. An indirect link
exists in its financing and coordination of anti-Castro infiltration
teams whose members, in certain instances, killed civilians outside of
the objective of their mission.
4. 199 victims claimed by Cuba as victims of terrorism cannot be
responsibly attributed to a particular cause or perpetrator. This number
includes Cuban exiles assassinated in the United States and 73 persons
killed in the Cubana de Aviación plane that exploded upon leaving
Barbados for Cuba (52 Cubans, 11 Guayanese and 5 North Koreans).
5. Regarding the 1976 explosion of the plane from Barbados, unless more
conclusive determination of cause becomes available, the victims of this
incident appear in Cuba Archive’s lists under unknown cause. . The plane
was never lifted from the ocean for a determination of cause, as Fidel
Castro refused an offer from the British government to do so. It is said
to have been carrying arms on its return from the war in Angola; the
following year a plane of the same characteristics, carrying arms to
Nicaragua, exploded under similar circumstances. In addition, suspicious
events that contradict allegations of cause are associated with the
explosion and courts in Venezuela exonerated the two accused men on two
separate occasions.
For the Castro period, from 1959 to the present, Dr. Lago has documented
149 extrajudicial assassinations in actions against the Castro regime
attributed to anti-Castro insurgents inside the island or by Cuban
exiles. For a full review of claims of terrorism, the Cuban government
must provide a full list of victims, with adequate and verifiable data.
Source: Cuba Archive / Free Society
Project, Inc.
February 08, 2006
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