By Beto Rodriguez on January 4, 2024
3478. the number of Cubans killed by US sponsored terrorism since the revolution.
On the afternoon of November 24, 2023, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba issued an alert to its citizens wishing to enter the island for “potential terrorist acts, demonstrations and acts of violence against the United States, its citizens and its interests.” Therefore, it suggested to avoid “places frequented by tourists and sites commonly used for demonstrations”. (Suspicious…)
A day earlier, Palestinian kufiyas and flags waved along Havana’s Malecon in a march called and led by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in favor of Palestine and against the genocidal aggression of the Israeli regime. The demonstration started from the Avenue of the Presidents and went along the Antillean cape to the park known as La Piragua, very, very close to the headquarters of the U.S. Embassy. (Coincidence?…).
Did this demonstration cause panic in Washington? Should its citizens be afraid to travel to Cuba because of a march in solidarity with Palestine? After all, the event had already happened and from the windows of the diplomatic building on Desamparados Street everything could be observed and its occupants could enjoy their cokes quite relaxed without fear of “acts of violence” against them.
Who are the terrorists?
A fortnight later, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba shook the sewers of Miami. On December 7, it published in its pages Resolution 19/2023 approved by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior with the National List of persons and entities linked to terrorism against Cuba. In short, names and terrorist organizations that since 1999 have planned, executed and conspired acts of extreme violence in Cuban territory, government and tourist facilities, sabotage, illegal incursions, human trafficking, war preparations and, yes, plans to assassinate the leaders of the Revolution.
Some of the terrorists cited in the publication are: Santiago Álvarez Fernández Magriñá, Ramón Saúl Sánchez Rizo, Ana Olema Hernández, William Cabrera González, Michel Naranjo Riverón and Eduardo Arias León.
Also on the list are: Yamila Betancourt García; youtuber Alejandro Otaola Casal (who could not hide how affected he was by being on the list and responded on his Youtube channel); the aforementioned terrorist, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat and others such as Eliecer Ávila, Liudmila Santiesteban Cruz, Manuel Milanés Pizonero, Alain Lambert Sánchez (self-styled Cuban Paparazzi) and Jorge Ramón Batista Calero (a.k.a. Ultrack).
According to Cuban government decree, all these people (have) participated in documented acts of violence, using social networks to recruit some harmless people in exchange for a few dollars for their grotesque purposes, inside and outside Cuba.
Unconscious… or maybe not, because on the list appears the name of Alexander Alazo Baró, who, according to file 27/2020, is under investigation for having attacked with 32 semi-automatic rifle shots the Cuban Embassy in the United States in the early morning of April 30, 2020.
According to investigations, Alexander Allazo is linked to the Florida-based evangelical church, Doral Jesus Worship Center , which is attended by other anti-Cuban extremists such as Pastor Frank Lopez , close to Senator Marco Rubio , one of the leading figures in the anti-Cuban struggle.
Three years later, history repeated itself. Two Molotov cocktails crashed into the Cuban diplomatic headquarters in Washington. “Anti-Cuban groups resort to terrorism when they feel impunity, something Cuba has repeatedly warned U.S. authorities about,” declared Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla on September 24, the day of the new terrorist attack.
And the criminals? Nobody knows. Maybe the U.S. authorities do, but who knows… Right?
A jet ski and a terrorist enter through Matanzas
On December 9, Cuban media reported that a man, residentof Miami, was arrested in the province of Cienfuegos. The subject had entered by sea, aboard a jet ski adapted to withstand the 90-mile trip from Florida to Cuba. One detail: the man was carrying a gun and several full cartridges of ammunition. He intended to recruit people to burn sugar cane plantations, provoke riots, harass tourist centers, distribute propaganda against the Government of the island… in short, terrorist stuff. But the citizen’s denunciation plus the immediate action of the Ministry of the Interior managed to stop him in time.
He was not just any castaway or lost tourist. Once arrested, the subject turned out to be on the National List of Terrorists that, a few days earlier, had been published by the Cuban Government. His intentions were clear: to exercise all the violence he could against the country, by order of terrorist groups based in Miami. The Miami of Marco Rubio and Orlando Boronat. Of Mario Diaz-Balart and the youtuber Otaola. The same ones who have publicly urged Washington to drop bombs on Havana. They have received armed and physical paramilitary training and money for instructions to carry out violent actions inside Cuba.
Was this another “mentally handicapped” as Miami propagandists are trying to pass off the terrorist who shot up the Cuban embassy in 2020? Perhaps it was the action of a fanatic with a lot of initiative, a gun and a jet ski? Or none of the above. So, no one should rule out the possibility that the U.S. government knew this would happen and that is why it issued its alert about possible acts of terrorism in Cuba a few days earlier. In other words, Washington already knew in advance that anti-Cuban groups were planning to infiltrate the island to commit acts of terrorism.
The list of such actions is long. Since the triumph of Fidel Castro’s Revolution in Cuba in 1959 (and yes, it has been 65 years and counting…), U.S. intelligence has tried everything to put an end to Cuban socialism. It invaded militarily in 1961; attempted to assassinate Fidel on more than six hundred occasions; blew up a Cubana de Aviación plane in 1973; bomb explosions in hotels and resorts; assassinated a diplomat in New York in 1980; to this day kidnaps artists and sportsmen; finances human trafficking, not to mention that year after year it invests millions of dollars in permanent political, economic and media siege campaigns trying to subvert public opinion inside and outside Cuba against its government.
Uncle Sam’s responsibility
The facts indicate that they intend to reopen a new phase of violence against the island, through armed infiltration. That is called terrorism, anywhere in the world. And for less, the White House has invaded countries feigning “threats to their security”.
However, it seems that for the U.S. government terrorism only exists when it affects its economic interests. For them, there is everything from TERRORISM to “terrorism, whatever”. And what is against Cuba (as in general, against all countries, peoples and people hated by Uncle Sam) is tolerated and even financed.
And if not, the United States has the responsibility to comply with international standards and deport to Cuba the 61 Florida-based terrorists awaiting trial on the island for their acts. However, this is the hour in which Washington refuses to collaborate, collaborating with the suspicion (which is more of a certainty) that it not only consents to, but is behind the violence against Havana by these groups.
What happens is that the world continues to demand this attitude from the United States ends. Thus, last November 2, as every year, all the countries of the world (except the US, obviously, and Israel, which is a fictitious country anyway) demanded Washington lift the criminal economic and commercial blockade against the island, by means of a vote in the UN General Assembly. And they will continue to demand it together with the peoples of the world until the White House stops obstinately using terrorism as a state policy.
Source: Medium, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English