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Havana from Space
SUMMARY OF THE MAIN TERRORIST ACTIONS AGAINST CUBA (1990-2000)
From 1959 on, counter-revolutionary groups created and directed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have carried out countless terrorist activities costing Cuba valuable lives and vast amounts of resources.
Encouraged by the fall of the socialist camp at the beginning of the 90's, these groups have intensified their violent actions against the Cuban people and its leaders from U.S. territory and from other bases of operations in Central America.
Listed below are some of the most infamous of these actions callously executed against the Cuban people:
July 17, 1990: Following the intensive lobbying by Florida Republican Congresspersons, Ileana Ross and Connie Mack, U.S. President George H. Bush releases well-known terrorist Orlando Bosch from jail. Bosch is the man chiefly responsible for the October 1976 blasting of a Cuban civil airplane in mid-flight, thereby killing all 73 people on board.
October 14, 1990: Two armed terrorists sneak into Santa Cruz Del Norte as part of an action concocted in Miami. They are following orders to carry out violent actions. Their weapons and false documents supplied in Miami are confiscated by Cuban authorities. They also carry literature urging people to join what they call "The Cuban Liberation Army" headed by Higinio Diaz Anne, who had supplied them with money and propaganda material prior to their departure from Miami.
May 15, 1991: Jose Basulto, an ex-Bay of Pigs mercenary, well-known terrorist and CIA agent, establishes the so-called Brothers to the Rescue. He asks President George H. Bush for three U.S. Air Force type 0-2 planes, the military version of the Cessna which had been used in the war against the Salvadoran people.
Congresswoman Ileana Ross heavily lobbies until the three planes are obtained. A photo of the planes received by this counter-revolutionary group appears in the press for the first time in a July 19,1991 article by the publisher of the Miami Herald, who also actually flies with Brothers to the Rescue. The letters USAF (United States Air Force) are clearly visible on the planes.
September 17, l991: Two counter-revolutionaries from Miami infiltrate Cuba. Their mission is to sabotage tourist shops in order to spread terror amongst foreign visitors. Their weapons and a radio transmitter are confiscated.
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December 29, 1991: Three terrorists from the so-called Commandos L Group in Miami enter Cuba illegally. Their weapons and other war materiel are confiscated.
These three had received insurgency training with 50 or 60 other men in a training camp on 168th Street in Miami.
May 8, 1992: Cuba files a complaint with the United Nations concerning terrorist activities expressly organized to harm its territory. At Cuba's request, a June 23, 1989 decision of the U.S. Department of Justice is circulated as an official Security Council document.
The decision states that Orlando Bosch is banned from entering U.S. territory, citing substantial proof of his past and present terrorist activities, including the 1976 blasting of a Cuban civil aviation plane in mid-flight. Today, this individual freely walks the streets of Miami after George H. Bush grants him a presidential pardon.
July 4, 1992: A group of terrorists sets out from the United States in order to attack economic targets along the Havana coastline. Once they are detected by Cuban patrol boats, they move to waters off Varadero, where the U.S. Coast Guard rescues them after their boat suffers a mechanical failure. The FBI releases them after it confiscates their supply of weapons, and maps and videos they had made during their journey.
July, 1992: An operation to infiltrate a U.S.-based terrorist into Cuba, served with the mission of sabotaging an economic target in Villa Clara province, fails. The terrorist is carrying weapons and explosives needed for the job and is to be assisted by Brothers to the Rescue who would keep him informed as to the position of the U.S. Coast Guard.
September 9, 1992: The FBI arrests a Cuban-born terrorist for illegal possession of firearms and violation of the Law of Neutrality. He is released without charges.
October 7, 1992: An armed attack against the Melia Varadero Hotel is perpetrated from a vessel manned by four Miami terrorists who are later arrested, questioned by the FBI, then released.
October 19, 1992: Three Miami-based counter-revolutionaries enter Cuba illegally, carrying weapons and military equipment that are confiscated. At the same time, three other terrorists are arrested in the Bahamas carrying weapons and explosives, apparently destined for Cuba. These weapons are also seized. This particular group had left Miami on October 17.
January, 1993: Five terrorists on board a vessel armed with heavy machine guns and other weapons are arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard as they head toward the Cuban coastline. They are quickly released.
January 7, 1993: During a press conference in Miami, Tony Bryant, leader of the terrorist group "Commandos L" openly announces plans to carry out more attacks against targets in Cuba. He makes a point of naming hotels as a prime target. He is quoted as saying, "From now on we are at war with Cuba," and warns foreign tourists to stay away from Cuba.
April 2, 1993: Seven miles north of Matanzas, the tanker ship Mikonos sailing under a Cypriot flag, is fired upon from a vessel manned by Cuban-born U.S.-based terrorists.
May 18, 1993: Another violation of Cuban airspace is incurred by a plane registered to Brothers to the Rescue bearing the number N8447.
May 21, 1993: Nine terrorists are arrested by the U.S. Customs Service who board a vessel as they prepare to sail for Cuba in order to launch attacks on that country. Their weapons and explosives are seized. On August 21, Judge Lawrence King dismisses charges against them.
May, 1993: Brothers to the Rescue plan to blow up a high-tension pylon near San Nicolas de Bari in Havana province.
October, 1993: Brothers to the Rescue publicly encourages attempts on the life of President Fidel Castro and continues to incite violence against Cuba. The Brothers confirm their readiness to accept the risk that could come with this commitment. Andres Nazario Sargen, head of terrorist group ALPHA 66, publicly announces in the U.S. that his organization had recently carried out five illegal operations against Cuba.
October 18, 1993: A terrorist living in the U.S. is arrested upon his arrival in Cuba.
His orders were to carry out acts of violence on Cuban soil.
November 7, 1993: During a press conference in Miami, Humberto Perez, spokesperson for ALPHA 66, threatens that his war against Cuba would soon be extended to any tourist visiting the island. "We consider anyone staying in a Cuban hotel to be an enemy," he states.
1993: A Cuban citizen visiting in the United States is recruited by a terrorist organization to carry out sabotage in Cuba against the tourism and agricultural sectors. He is supplied with some of the materials required for such actions and is offered the sum of $20,000 in U.S. funds.
March 11, 1994: A terrorist group from Miami fires on the Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel.
April 17, 1994: Planes owned by Brothers to the Rescue fly at extremely low altitudes over Havana and drop smoke bombs. In the following months of 1994, the same group carries out at least seven other similar violations of Cuban airspace.
September 4, 1994: Two U.S.-based terrorists infiltrate the area around Caibarien, Villa Clara, charged with a mission of carrying out sabotage in that province. A number of weapons and large amounts of military equipment are seized.
October 6, 1994: Another armed group fires automatic weapons at the Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel from a boat that had embarked from Florida.
October 15, 1994: A group of armed terrorists coming from the United States land on the causeway to Cayo Santa Maria near Caibarien, Villa Clara, and murder a Cuban, Arcelio Rodriguez Garcia.
October, 1994: Brothers to the Rescue uses one of its planes to train members of a Florida-based counter-revolutionary organization. They plan to carry out acts of sabotage on the Cienfuegos oil refinery. In November of the same year, they also plan to make an attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro and other leaders of the Revolution and to continue arms and explosives smuggling into Cuba.
November, 1994: Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and five of his accomplices smuggle weapons into Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, during the Fourth Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in order to make an attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro. However, the security belt keeps him at a distance, thus thwarting the assassination plot. Posada Carriles later tells the New York Times, "I was standing behind some journalists and I saw Castro's friend, Garcia Marquez, but I could only see Castro from a long way away."
November 11, 1994: Four terrorists are arrested in Varadero, Matanzas. After sneaking into Cuba, they are relieved of weapons and munitions.
March 2, 1995: Two terrorists from the United States sneak onto the coast of Cuba near Puerto Padre, Las Tunas. They are carrying 51 pounds of C-4 explosives and other munitions.
April 4, 1995: A C-337 light plane violates Cuban airspace north of Havana between Santa Fe and Guanabo beach.
May 20, 1995: The Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel is once again attacked by terrorists manning a fast launch that had come from the United States.
July 12, l995: Three terrorists are arrested in the United States as they are preparing to sneak into Cuba with a plan of executing an act of provocation just off the Cuban coast. Despite confiscation of their weapons and explosives, U.S. authorities release them.
July 13, 1995: A plot organized by Brothers to the Rescue employs eleven vessels, six light planes, and two helicopters. They leave the U.S. and illegally enter Cuban territorial waters and airspace. One of the light planes blatantly flies over the heart of Havana and showers the city with propaganda leaflets.
December 16, 1995: Two terrorists are arrested in the U.S. as they ready themselves to sneak into Cuba through Pinar del Rio in order to carry out subversive actions. U.S. authorities confiscate their weapons and explosives and release them.
January 9, 1996: Two light planes depart from Opa-locka Airport in Florida and violate Cuban airspace.
January 12, 1996: A Cuban immigrant from the U.S. is arrested while trying to transport explosives from the city of Havana to Pinar del Rio.
January 13, 1996: Several Brothers to the Rescue planes violate Cuban airspace over the city of Havana. Later, terrorist Basulto scoffs, "They say I was flying over Cuban airspace, something everybody knows and which I have never denied."
January 23, 1996: U.S. authorities intercept a vessel in Marathon Key heading for Cuba with five armed terrorists on board. The FBI releases the five that very same day.
February 11, 1996: After firing upon the Cuban coastline, a vessel coming from the U.S. carrying three terrorists, is captured by the Cuban Coastguard Patrol.
February 24, 1996: Brothers to the Rescue launch a new foray. Three light planes violate Cuban airspace directly over the heart of Havana and two of them are shot down. In the 20 months prior to this incident, there had been at least 25 other violations of Cuban airspace.
June 26, 1996: During a session of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the Chairman of the Investigating Committee acknowledges that at least one of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in Opa-locka Airport, Florida, still has the insignia of the U.S. Air Force on it. He testifies, "The F is a little pale; it looks as if it is beginning to fade, but you can still see it."
August 21, 1996: A U.S. citizen is arrested in Cuba. He had clandestinely brought military equipment into the country and was planning to carry out terrorist actions on Cuban soil.
September 16, 1996: A person is arrested when he is caught sneaking into Cuba through Punta Alegre, Ciego de Avila, on a boat carrying weapons and a great deal of military equipment.
October 21, 1996: An SS-RR light plane, registration number N3093, owned by the U.S. State Department, sprays a substance containing the pesticide Thrip Palmi Karny as it flies over the Giron international corridor about 25 to 30 kilometres south of Varadero.
November 16, 1996: Miami television carries a live interview with Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch. They reaffirm their intentions of continuing with their terrorist activities against Cuba.
April 12, 1997: An explosive device is detonated in the Melia Cohiba Hotel in the city of Havana.
April 30, 1997: Another explosive device is discovered in the Melia Cohiba Hotel.
July 12, 1997: Bombs explode in the Capri and Nacional Hotels.
August 11, 1997: The Miami press publish a statement from the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) which pledges unconditional support to the terrorist bomb attacks against civilian and tourist targets in Cuba. The chairman of this organization claims, "We do not think of these as terrorist actions," and went on to say, ".any action against Cuba is legitimate."
August 22, 1997: A bomb explodes in the Sol Palmeras Hotel in Varadero.
September 4, 1997: Several bombs explode in the Triton, Chateau Miramar and Copacabana Hotels. The explosion in the latter kills Fabio Di Celmo, a young Italian tourist. On the same day, another bomb explodes at La Bodeguita del Medio restaurant. (CNN story 1 / CNN story 2
September 10, 1997: The Cuban Government announces the arrest of Salvadoran national, Raul Cruz Leon, the person responsible for placing six of the bombs that exploded in various hotels in the Cuban capital, including the one that killed Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo. Cruz Leon admits that he had been paid $4,500 in U.S. funds for each bomb.
October 19, 1997: An explosive device is found in a tourist van.
October 27, 1997: The U.S. Coast Guard intercepts a vessel west of Puerto Rico. They confiscate two high velocity .50 calibre rifles with their tripods, night vision gear, military uniforms and communications equipment. These sophisticated weapons, strictly military in nature, are designed for long range attacks on vehicles and aircraft.
One person on the vessel admits that his mission was to assassinate President Fidel Castro at the time that he would arrive on Margarita Island, Venezuela, on November 7, 1997, to attend the Ibero-American Summit.
U.S. authorities discover that the vessel had been registered by a Florida company whose chief executive officer, manager and secretary/treasurer is Jose Antonio Llama, a director of CANF and a Bay of Pigs mercenary. One of the rifles is registered in the name of Jose Francisco Hernandez, CANF co-chairman. Futhermore, it is discovered that the other rifle had been purchased by a member of Brigade 2506 in 1994.
The four crew members on the vessel are identified as: a well-known CIA agent, the captain of a CIA boat used by Florida infiltration teams sneaking into Cuba, the chairman of a New Jersey counter-revolutionary group, and a member of Alpha 66.
Despite their confessions and indisputable evidence of the illegal possession of arms, false testimony and arms smuggling, these terrorists are acquitted by a U.S. Federal Court of Law in December, 1999, after a flawed trial.
October 30, 1997: An explosive device is discovered hidden in a kiosk just outside of Terminal 2 at the Jose Marti International Airport in the city of Havana. Two men, originally from El Salvador and three others, originally from Guatemala, would later be arrested for crimes against tourist facilities. All of them are shown to have links with terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.
November 16, 1997: Following a two-month investigation, a Florida newspaper reports that the series of bomb explosions in Havana were bankrolled and directed by Miami anti-Cuban groups. In particular, they note that Luis Posada Carriles, a fugitive from justice for having blown up a Cuban plane in 1976, was at the heart of the operation.
May, 1998: Two terrorists sneak into Santa Lucia, Pinar del Rio. They had embarked from the U.S. with an enormous cache of weapons and war materiel.
June 16, 1998: After several meetings in which the Cuban Government provides the FBI and other U.S. government agencies with information about terrorist activities concocted in the U.S. against Cuba, an official U.S. delegation travels to Havana, including two very highly-placed FBI officials. They are presented with precise details, films, recordings and other irrefutable material evidence on the activities of 40 terrorists who operate out of the U.S. in missions of espionage against Cuba.
July 12, 1998: An article in the New York Times reports a statement made by Cuban American, Antonio Jorge Alvarez, in which he complains that the FBI neglected to investigate the validity of information he had previously imparted to them concerning a proposed assassination attempt on the life of Fidel Castro to take place during the Ibero-American Summit in Venezuela.
According to the New York Times, Alvarez had provided the FBI with information that Posada Carriles, together with accomplices who were working in Alvarez' factory in Guatemala, were preparing this assassination mission as well as the bomb explosions in Havana. Alvarez says, "I risked my business and my life and they (FBI) did nothing."
July 12 and 13, 1998: In an interview with the New York Times, Luis Posada Carriles admits to having organized the bomb campaign against Cuban tourist centres. He also acknowledges that the leaders of CANF had bankrolled his operations and that its chairman, Jorge Mas Canosa, was personally in charge of overseeing the flow of funds and logistic support to those operations. He says, "Jorge Mas Canosa controlled everything. Whenever I needed money he would say that he would give me $5,000 -- $10,000 - or even $l5,000 (US funds) and he did!"
Posada also admits to having paid Raul Cruz Leon to place the bombs in Havana hotels. Referring to the young Italian tourist killed by one of these bombs, he blithely tells the New York Times,".He was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time."
In compiling these reports, the New York Times used CIA and FBI files, testimony from more than 100 people and more than 13 hours of recorded interviews with Posada Carriles as well as documents personally signed by him.
July 23, 1998: The Miami press publishes an article entitled: IN THE UNITED STATES, ANTI-CASTRO PLOTS RARELY LEAD TO JAIL. The article mentions several cases, such as the 1990 acquittal of 6 terrorists who took guns and weapons to Nicaragua for an attempt on the life of the Cuban President. It also mentions the Rodolfo Frometa and Fausto Marimoms acquittals concerning charges of planning to use Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons in terrorist attacks.
The article also quotes statements attributed to a well-known terrorist named Tony Bryant, who said that in 1989, the FBI intercepted him in a boat loaded with weapons and explosives and let him go. He added to his statement that he had been intercepted in two of his missions against Cuba, but the FBI never did anything to him.
August 2, 1998: In an interview for the program "Opposing Points of View" for CBS News, Posada Carriles says that he intends to launch more attacks on Cuban facilities, either inside or outside the island.
August, 1998: Even before President Fidel Castro's announcement that the Cuban President would be attending the Summit of Heads of State and Government of CARIFORUM in the Dominican Republic, several Cuban-born terrorists plot an attempt on his life to be carried out some time between August 20 and 25. To that end, Posada Carriles arranges a meeting in the Guatemala City Holiday Inn one month before the summit to plan on how to get weapons and explosives into Santo Domingo.
September 12, 1998: In desperation, hoping to anticipate the timetables of these relentless, illegal attacks on the Cuban people by Cuban-American right-wing extremist groups, Cubans enter the U.S. on a fact-finding mission in order to monitor the movements of these terrorist groups.
The Cuban government shares the incriminating evidence with the FBI. Three months later, abetted by these influential, well-financed Cuban-American extremist groups, the FBI arrests the Cubans.
The case has attracted the attention and participation of human rights lawyers in the U.S. and other countries and is now languishing in the U.S. court system.
November 17, 2000: A group of terrorists led by Posada Carriles is arrested in Panama. These terrorists have entered Panama with false documents in order to conduct yet another attempt on the life of Fidel Castro during the 10th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government. Their weapons, explosives, a sketch of Fidel Castro's proposed route as well as an agenda of public meetings are seized. The Cuban American National Foundation is financing the team of lawyers defending the terrorists.
April 26, 200l: Three terrorists from the Commandos Groups, F-45 and Alpha 66, attempt to land on the north coast of Villa Clara province. They fire shots at the Cuban Coastguard which has spotted them. Four AKM rifles, one M-3 rifle with a silencer, three hand guns, a great deal of material such as night vision equipment and communications equipment are confiscated by Cuban authorities. This equipment was meant to carry out sabotage and terrorist action on Cuban soil.
In addition to the plots listed above, Cuban authorities have learned of 16 other plots to assassinate the President of Cuba, 8 plots to assassinate other leaders of the Revolution and 140 other terrorist plots hatched between 1990 and 2001. All of these plots were discouraged and prevented by the diligent work of the Cuban Security and Intelligence Services.
Epilogue:
The people of the United States are a good and generous people. A case in point: It was the overwhelming response from the grass roots of the USA that finally convinced its federal government authorities, however belatedly, to take action on the Elián González case.
Night after night, the disturbing images of Elian's hauntingly saddened eyes touched the hearts of the people in the U.S. and they responded in overwhelming numbers. They demanded that the boy be returned to his father. What this infamous vignette of U.S. history shows is the absolute captivity in which successive U.S. administrations have been kept by this unwholesome extremist group in Miami.
U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba have reflected this detrimental influence. The awesome power accrued by this deadly lobby group has maintained a moribund stricture on the possibility of normalizing diplomatic relations between the two countries.
It is often noted that certain duplicitous U.S. politicians receive more campaign donations from these extremist Miami groups than they do from their own constituencies. The financial influence exerted upon both U.S. mainstream parties far outbalances the actual headcount of the community that nourishes these small, violent groups.
The Cuban Five, presently incarcerated in U.S. prisons, considered to be Patriots by the Cuban people and people of good will all over the world, are victims of this ongoing travesty.
Free the Cuban Five - Toronto
P.O. Box 743, Station F
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4Y 2N6
Email: freethefivetoronto@canada.com
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