Statement by Socialist Action’s National Committee, published on Socialist Action, September 27, 2023
Statement by Socialist Action’s National Committee
Terrorists attacked the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C. in the late evening of Sunday, September 24, deploying two Molotov cocktails. Fortunately no one was hurt.
The responsibility for this horror resides solely with the U.S. government that has conducted, encouraged, and tolerated terrorist attacks on Cuba for more than 60 years. Indeed, CIA chiefs have publicly admitted some 30 US-orchestrated assassination attacks against Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro. Terrorist bombings of Cuban hotels along with blowing up Cuban passenger planes have been the stock- in-trade of US policy for decades, not to mention the mention the illegal and punishing US embargo/blockade that has been unanimously and repeatedly condemned by the UN General Assembly, with only the US and Israel voting No.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recounted the grim history of US-sponsored terrorism against Cuba as follows:
“The CIA and FBI have created, financed, and trained hundreds of anti-Cuba terrorist groups since the triumph of the revolution in 1959.
“At least 3,478 Cubans have been killed and 2,099 have been disabled by US-sponsored terrorism since the revolution.
“This includes 581 attacks against the country’s diplomatic representations abroad, according to Cuba’s Center for Historical Investigations of State Security (CIHSE).
“At their peak violence, in 1974, Cuban exiles accounted for 45% of all terrorist bombings on the planet.
“The most notorious of these terrorists, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, bombed a Cuban plane and numerous hotels. They were trained by the CIA and exonerated by the US government for their crimes. They died peacefully in Florida, celebrated as local heroes by the extreme anti-Castro community.”
Sunday’s bombing of the Cuban Embassy was the second attack on its Washington, D.C. headquarters in recent years. In 2020, another terrorist attack riddled the building with a rifle shots; the bullet holes are still visible today. The U.S. government never condemned that attack.
The recent attack comes on the heels of a successful meeting held a day earlier in New York City, at which Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed a meeting of hundreds of supporters of the Cuban Revolution. Cuban Five Hero and President of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, Fernando González, explained, “Anti-Cuban terrorism in the U.S. shows its face again. Frustrated with the success of our President’s visit to New York, they attacked our Embassy in Washington. But nothing will stop Cuba’s decision to resist and win.”
President Diaz-Canel also addressed a joyous meeting at Harlem’s Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Center on Monday, September 18 commemorating the historic meeting 68 years ago of President Fidel Castro with Malcolm X at the Theresa Hotel. Sharing the stage with Malcolm’s daughter, Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, Díaz-Canel praised Malcolm X’s legacy stating, “For Fidel and Cuba, Malcolm X also defied the imperial powers.” “The Cuban Revolution,” he added, “would never forget his role in inviting him and his delegation to the Theresa Hotel, in the heart of the Black neighborhood of Harlem, when there was an attempt to boycott his presence at the United Nations in 1960.”
Clearly the cowardly Molotov cocktail attack was a twisted response to the success of the Cuban government in fostering international solidarity against the US embargo. The attack also occurred on the heels of Diaz-Canel’s address to the United Nations General Assembly where he condemned the “coercive and merciless economic warfare” waged against Cuba by the US and the deadly US economic sanctions imposed on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The Cuban President was warmly received at every engagement by cheering crowds, who justly see the Cuban leader as a representative of the righteous struggle against imperialism and social injustice.
The safe haven offered to far-right terrorists by the US government encourages their brazen criminal acts. The perpetrators must be found, arrested and punished.
People of good will and solidarity across the country are increasingly demanding that Cuba be immediately removed from Washington’s heinous list of state sponsors of terrorism, that the U.S. terminate its inhuman and illegal embargo/blockade of Cuba, and that the U.S. end its occupation of Cuban territory at Guantanamo.
US Hand Off Cuba!
*Featured Image: Photo above: Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel addressing a Sept. 18 meeting at Harlem’s Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Center commemorating the historic meeting 68 years ago of President Fidel Castro with Malcolm X at the Theresa Hotel