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Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 18:08:26 -0400
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Subject: Speech by Fidel Castro, Oct 6, 2001
Speech by Fidel Castro, Oct 6, 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
PERMANENT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
315 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016
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ADDRESS BY DR. FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA,
AT A MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION COMMEMORATING THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE
TERRORIST ACT AGAINST A CUBANA JETLINER OFF THE COAST OF BARBADOS
REVOLUTION SQUARE, HAVANA, OCTOBER 6, 2001
Fellow countrymen:
History can be unpredictable and move along strange labyrinths.
Twenty-five years ago, in this very same square, we bid a final
farewell to a small number of coffins. They contained tiny fragments
of human remains and personal belongings of some of the 57 Cubans, 11
Guyanese --most of them students on scholarships in Cuba-- and five
North Korean cultural officials who were the victims of a brutal and
inconceivable act of terrorism. What was particularly moving was the
death of almost the entire Cuban juvenile fencing team, both women
and men, coming home with every single one of the gold medals awarded
in this sport at a Central American and Caribbean tournament.
A million of our fellow countrymen, with tears filling their eyes and
running down their cheeks, gathered here to bid a more symbolic than
actual farewell to our brothers and sisters whose bodies rested on
the ocean floor.
Nobody, except for a group of friendly personalities and
institutions, shared our pain and sorrow. There was no upheaval
around the world, no acute political crises, no United Nations
meetings, nor the imminent threat of war.
Perhaps, few people in the world understood the terrible significance
of that event. How important could it be that a Cuban jetliner was
blown up in mid-flight with 73 people aboard? It was almost a common
occurrence. Thousands of Cubans had already died in La Coubre, the
Escambray Mountains, the Bay of Pigs, and in hundreds of other
terrorist acts, pirate attacks and similar actions, had they not? Who
could pay any attention to the denunciations of this tiny country?
All that was needed, apparently, was a simple denial from the
powerful neighbor and their media, which inundate the world, and the
matter was forgotten.
Who could have predicted that almost exactly 25 years later, a war
with totally unpredictable consequences would be on the verge of
breaking out as a result of an equally heinous terrorist attack,
which claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people in the United
States? Back then, in what now appears to be a tragic omen, innocent
people from various countries died; this time, there were victims
from 86 nations.
Then, as now, there was hardly anything left of the victims. In
Barbados, not a single body could be recovered and in New York, only
a few were and not all of them identifiable. In both cases, the
families were left with an appalling emptiness and infinite grief; a
deep indignation and an unbearable sorrow was brought on the peoples
of both nations. It had not been an accident, a mechanical failure or
a human error; these were both deliberate acts, planned and executed
in cold blood.
There were, however, a few differences between the monstrous crime in
Barbados and the abhorrent, unimaginable terrorist attack against the
American people. In the United States, the act was the work of
fanatics willing to die alongside their victims, while in Barbados it
was the work of mercenaries who did not run the slightest risk. In
the United States, the main goal of the perpetrators was not that of
killing the passengers. They hijacked the planes to attack the Twin
Towers and the Pentagon, albeit absolutely mindless of the death of
the innocent traveling with them. In Barbados, the basic objective of
the mercenaries was to kill the passengers.
In both cases, the anguish suffered by the travelers in those final
minutes of their lives, particularly the passengers on the fourth
plane hijacked in the United States -who already knew what had
happened in New York and Washington- must have been unbearable, the
same as that of the crew and passengers of the Cuban plane during the
desperate attempt to land when it was clearly impossible for them to
do so. There were clear demonstrations of courage and determination
in both cases as well: in Barbados, we learned of them through the
recorded voices of the Cuban crew; in the United States, through
subsequent reports on the attitude assumed by the passengers.
There is moving filmed footage of the horrific events in New York. As
for the explosion of the plane off the coasts of Barbados and its
plunge into the sea, there could not be, and there is not, so much as
a photograph. The only testimony lefts are the recordings of the
dramatic communications between the crew of the doomed aircraft and
the Barbados airport control tower.
This was the first time in the history of Latin America that such an
act had been promoted from abroad.
Actually, the systematic use of such politically motivated ruthless
and fearsome practices and procedures was initiated in this
hemisphere against our country. But, it was preceded in 1959 by
another equally absurd and irresponsible practice: that of hijacking
and diverting planes in mid-flight, a phenomenon that was practically
unknown in the world at the time.
The first of such acts involved a DC-3 passenger plane bound from
Havana to the Isle of Youth. It was hijacked by a few former members
of Batista's tyranny repressive corps, who forced the pilot to change
course and fly them to Miami. This happened on April 16, 1959, less
than four months after the triumph of the Revolution. The
perpetrators were never punished.
Between 1959 and 2001, a total of 51 Cuban jetliners were hijacked
and most of them diverted to the United States. Many of these
hijacked aircraft were never returned to our country despite the fact
that not a few pilots, guards and other people were murdered or
injured. Also, several planes were destroyed or seriously damaged in
frustrated hijacking attempts.
The consequence of this was that the plague of ``skyjacking'' soon
spread throughout the United States itself. For the most varied
reasons, a number of individuals -the vast majority of them mentally
unbalanced, thrill-seekers or common criminals, from both the United
States and Latin America- started to hijack airplanes using guns,
knives, Molotov cocktails, and on a number of occasions, simple
bottles of water, which they claimed contained gasoline and would be
used to set fire to the plane.
Thanks to the painstaking care of our authorities, not a single
accident occurred upon landing. The passengers always received proper
treatment and were immediately returned to their places of origin.
The majority of hijackings and diversions of Cuban aircraft took
place between 1959 and 1973. Faced with the risk of a major
catastrophe in the United States or Cuba -given that there were even
hijackers who, once they had the plane under control, threatened to
fly it into the Oak Ridge nuclear power station [in the United
States] if their demands were not met- the Government of Cuba took
the initiative of approaching the Government of the United States
--led at the time by President Richard Nixon, with William Rogers as
Secretary of State-- and proposing an agreement to deal with cases of
aircraft hijacking and maritime piracy. The proposal was accepted,
and the agreement was quickly drawn up and signed by representatives
of both governments on February 16, 1973. It was also immediately
published in our country's press and given wide coverage.
That rational and well thought-out agreement established heavy
sanctions against hijackers of planes and boats, and it did serve as
a deterrent. From that date forward, there was a considerable
reduction in the hijacking of Cuban planes, and for more than ten
years, every attempted hijacking in our country was foiled.
However, the brutal terrorist attack that led to the explosion of the
Cuban plane in mid-flight dealt a devastating blow to that exemplary
and effective agreement. The Cuban government, faced with this
inconceivable act of aggression that had taken place as part of a new
wave of terrorist acts unleashed against Cuba in late 1975, denounced
the agreement, in full accordance with the clauses stipulated
therein. Nevertheless, it did continue to abide by the procedures set
forth to prevent the hijackings of U.S. planes, including the
application of heavy sanctions, which had been considerably stepped
up as a result of the agreement, with sentences of up to 20 years
imprisonment. Even before the agreement was signed, Cuban courts had
been applying the sanctions provided in our own Penal Code against
hijackers, although these had been less severe.
Despite the rigorous application of sanctions, a few other American
jetliners were hijacked and diverted to our country. Then, the
Government of Cuba, after issuing duly advanced warnings, decided to
return two hijackers to the United States; thus, on September 18,
1980,
they were delivered to the authorities of that country.
Our records show that between September 1968 and December 1984, there
were 71 cases of airplanes hijacked and diverted to Cuba. Sixty-nine
participants in these hijackings faced trials in courts of law and
were given prison sentences ranging between three and five years.
Subsequently, after the signing of the 1973 agreement, sentences
ranged between 10 and 20 years.
As a result of these measures adopted by Cuba, the fact is that for
the last 17 years there has not been a single further hijacking or
diversion of an U.S. plane to Cuba.
On the other hand, what has been the stance of successive U.S.
administrations? Since 1959, until today, the U.S. authorities have
not sanctioned a single one of the hundreds of individuals who have
hijacked and diverted dozens of Cuban aircraft to that country, not
even those have committed murder in the course of the hijacking.
It is impossible to conceive of a greater lack of basic reciprocity,
or a greater incitement to the hijacking of planes and boats. This
unbending policy has remained unchanged throughout more than four
decades and continues to be maintained today, without a single
exception.
The constructive agreement on the hijacking of planes and boats
signed between the governments of Cuba and the United States, whose
results were immediately evident, was seemingly accepted by the top
leaders of the terrorist groups. Some had actively cooperated or
participated in the organization of irregular warfare through armed
gangs that, at times, had expanded to the six former provinces of
Cuba. The majority of them had been recruited by the U.S. government
in the days of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Missile Crisis, and in
later years. They participated in all manner of violent actions,
particularly assassination plots and terrorist attacks, that did not
leave out a single sphere of the country's economic and social life,
a single method, a single procedure, a single weapon.
They were taken to all kinds of institutions, schools and training
programs, sometimes to be trained, sometimes to be kept busy.
Dramatic events like the assassination of President Kennedy led to
in-depth investigations, like that carried out by an U.S. Senate
Committee. The embarrassing situations and major scandals that
resulted forced a change in tactics, although there was never really
any change in the policy towards Cuba. As a consequence, after
periods of relative calm, new waves of terrorism have continued to
break out.
This is exactly what happened in late 1975. The Church Commission had
presented its famous report on assassination plots against the
leaders of Cuba and other countries on November 20 of that year,
therefore, the Central Intelligence Agency could not continue
assuming direct responsibility for assassination plots and terrorist
acts against Cuba. The solution was simple: their most trustworthy
and best-trained terrorist personnel would adopt the form of
independent groups, which would act on their own behalf and under
their own responsibility. This led to the sudden emergence of a
bizarre coordinating organization, called the CORU, and made up by
the main terrorist groups in operation, which as a rule were fiercely
divided, due to leadership ambitions and personal interests. A wave
of violent terrorist actions was then unleashed. To mention just a
few, chosen from among the numerous and significant terrorist acts
carried out during this new stage, I could point out the following
that took place in a period of just four months:
- A pirate attack by speedboats from Florida against two fishing
boats, leading to the death of a fisherman and serious damage to the
boats, on April 6, 1976.
- A bomb planted in the Cuban embassy in Portugal, which caused the
death of two diplomatic officials, serious injuries to others, and
the total destruction of the premises, on April 22.
- An explosive attack against the UN Cuban Mission, causing serious
material damages, on June 5.
- The explosion of a bomb on the cart carrying the luggage that was
about to be loaded on a Cubana Airlines flight at the Kingston,
Jamaica, airport on July 9.
- The explosion of a bomb in the British West Indies Air Ways
offices in Barbados, which represented Cubana Airlines in that
country, on July 10.
- The murder of a fishing industry specialist during the attempted
kidnapping of the Cuban Consul in M�rida, Mexico, on July 24.
- The abduction and vanishing of two Cuban embassy officials in
Argentina, on August 9; both disappeared without a trace.
- The explosion of a bomb in the Cubana Airlines offices in Panama
City, causing considerable damage, on August 18.
Obviously, this was real war. Numerous attacks were aimed at
commercial airlines.
Even the New York Times and the U.S. News and World Report described
it as a new wave of terrorism against Cuba.
The groups that made up the CORU, which began to operate in the first
months of 1976, although it was not officially founded until June of
that year, issued public statements in the United States claiming
responsibility for every one of the terrorist acts they perpetrated.
They sent their war dispatches -as they themselves called them- from
Costa Rica to the Miami press. One of their publications printed an
article entitled ``War Dispatch'' recounting the destruction of a
Cuban embassy. That was the day they did not hesitate in publishing a
particularly significant communiqu� signed by the five terrorist
groups that made up the CORU: ``Very soon we will attack airplanes in
mid-flight.''
To carry out their attacks, the CORU terrorists freely used as the
main bases for their operations the territories of the United States,
Puerto Rico, Somoza's Nicaragua, and Pinochet's Chile.
Only eight weeks later, the Cuban jetliner would be blown up in
mid-flight off the coasts of Barbados with 73 people aboard.
Hern�n Ricardo and Freddy Lugo were the two Venezuelan mercenaries
who planted the bomb during the Trinidad and Tobago-Barbados leg of
the flight. They got off the plane in Barbados and returned to
Trinidad, where they were arrested and immediately confessed to their
involvement.
The Barbados police commissioner declared before an investigative
committee that Ricardo and Lugo had confessed that they were working
for the CIA. He added that Ricardo had pulled out a CIA card and
another one where the rules for the use of C-4 plastic explosives
were described.
On October 24, 1976, The New York Times indicated that ``the
terrorists who launched a wave of attacks in seven countries during
the last two years were the product and instruments of the CIA.''
The Washington Post noted that confirmed contacts with the U.S.
embassy in Venezuela ``cast doubt'' on the statement issued on
October 15 by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, with regard to
the claim that ``no one related to the U.S. government had anything
to do with the sabotage of the airplane'' from Cuba.
A correspondent from the Mexican daily Excelsior commented from Port
of Spain that ``with the confession made by Hern�n Ricardo Lozano,
the Venezuelan detained here in Trinidad, about his responsibility in
the attack on a Cubana aircraft that crashed off the coast of
Barbados with 73 people aboard, a major anti-Castro terrorist network
that is somehow linked with the CIA is on the verge of exposure.''
Le Monde wrote that the CIA connection with Cuban-born terrorist
groups that moved about freely on U.S. soil was public knowledge.
Many of the world's most respected news publications expressed the
same view.
Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, who masterminded the
terrorist crime, had links with the CIA dating back to 1960. They
were arrested and submitted to a dubious trial plagued with
irregularities amidst enormous pressures. The Venezuelan magistrate,
Dr. Delia Estaba Moreno, initiated legal proceedings against them for
murder, manufacture and use of firearms, and forging and carrying of
false documents. But, her honesty and integrity provoked a violent
reaction among the extreme right-wing political mobsters.
General Elio Garc�a Barrios, the presiding judge of the Military
Appeal Court, maintained a steadfast and determined stance, thanks to
which the two terrorists were forced to spend a number of years in
prison. But, the Miami terrorist mob took revenge by riddling one of
his sons with bullets in 1983.
Posada Carriles was rescued by the Cuban-American National
Foundation, that sent 50,000 dollars via Panama to finance his
escape, which was successfully carried out on August 18, 1985. In a
matter of hours, he turned up in El Salvador. He was visited there,
having barely arrived, by the top leaders of the Foundation. Those
were the days of the dirty war in Nicaragua. He immediately began to
execute important tasks under direct orders of the White House, in
the air supply of weapons and explosives to the Contras in Nicaragua.
The cold figure of 73 innocent people murdered in Barbados could not
possibly express the significance and magnitude of the tragedy.
Certainly, Americans will better understand by comparing the
population of Cuba 25 years ago with that of the United States on
September 11, 2001. The death of 73 people aboard a Cuban jetliner
blown up in mid-flight is to the U.S. people as if seven American
jetliners, with over 300 hundred passengers each, had been destroyed
in full flight the same day, at the same time, by a terrorist
conspiracy.
We could still go further and say that if we were to consider the
3,478 Cubans who have perished in over four decades as a result of
acts of aggression --including the invasion by the Bay of Pigs as
well as all the other terrorist acts sustained by Cuba, which
originated in the United States-- it would be as if 88,434 people had
died in that country, that is, a figure almost similar to the number
of Americans who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.
This denunciation we are making here today is not inspired in either
hate or rancor. I understand that American officials do not even want
to hear us raise these embarrassing issues. They say that we simply
should look ahead.
However, it would be senseless not to look back at the sources of
errors whose repetition should be avoided, and at the causes of major
human tragedies, wars and other calamities that, perhaps, could have
been prevented. There should not be innocent deaths anywhere in the
world.
This massive demonstration against terrorism has been called to pay
homage and tribute to the memory of our brothers and sisters who died
off the coasts of Barbados 25 years ago, but also to express our
solidarity with the thousands of innocent people who died in New York
and Washington. We are here to condemn the brutal crime committed
against them while supporting the search for ways conducive to a real
and lasting eradication of terrorism, to the prevalence of peace and
against the development of a bloody and open-ended war.
I am deeply convinced that relations between the terrorist groups
created by the United States in the first 15 years of the Revolution,
to act against Cuba, and the U.S authorities have never been severed.
In a day such as this, it is only right that we ask what will be done
about Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, the main culprits of the
obnoxious terrorist act perpetrated in Barbados; and what about those
who planned and financed the bombs that were set up in hotels of the
country's capital and have been restlessly trying, for over four
decades, to murder Cuban leaders.
It is not too much to ask that justice be done, for these
professional terrorists, acting from inside the very territory of the
United States, have not ceased to apply their despicable methods
against our people to sow terror and to destroy the economy of a
harassed and blockaded nation, one from which terrorist devices have
never come --not even a gram of explosives-- to blast in the United
States. Never has an American been injured or killed, nor has a
facility big or small in that large and rich country ever suffered
the least damage from any action coming from Cuba.
As we are involved in the worldwide struggle against terrorism,
--committed to take part alongside the United Nations and the rest of
the international community-- we have the full moral authority and
the right to demand the end of terrorism against Cuba. The economic
warfare, itself a genocide and a brutal act to which our people have
been subjected for more than 40 years, should also end.
Our brothers and sisters who died in Barbados are no longer only our
martyrs, they are also symbols in the struggle against terrorism.
They rise today like giants in this historic battle for the
eradication of terrorism from Earth, that repulsive procedure that
has caused so much damage and brought so much suffering to their
closest relatives and their people that have already written
unprecedented pages in the history of their Homeland and their times.
The sacrifice of their lives has not been useless. Injustice starts
to shake before the eyes of a forceful and virile nation that 25
years ago cried out of indignation and sorrow, and that today cry out
of emotion, of hope and pride in remembering them.
History, that can be unpredictable, has wanted it that way.
On behalf of the martyrs of that day in Barbados, let us say:
Socialism or Death!
Homeland or Death!
We shall overcome!
[Official Translation - 6 October, 2001]
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