What Were They Protecting Us From? Simon Wollers
In 1996 Noam Chomsky remarked that “Cuba was the target of more international terrorism than probably the rest of the world combined”. The following list is just a part of the terrorism directed against Cuba over the last 40 years. It is lengthy, but key to understanding why Cuba feels the need to send people like René, Gerardo, Fernando, Antonio and Ramón to protect itself from such attacks.
From the outset of the Revolution, barely days after Washington recognized the new government of Fidel Castro in January of 1959, the CIA began a campaign to overthrow Cuba's new leader. It is a campaign that has lasted through today, and is replete with anecdotes and tragedy.
From as early as March 10, 1959 the US National Security Council met in secret to discuss ways to replace the new Cuban government by any means necessary.
In August two Cuban planes were destroyed in Miami in an attack against air travel to Cuba. Fortunately, no one was hurt. A small plane that originated in the US was intercepted by Cuban authorities with a US citizen on board intending to assassinate Fidel Castro. In October, the first of a wave of attacks on sugar mills by planes flying in from the US began; a plane from Miami bombed Havana; and a train was machine-gunned in Las Villas -- again from a light aircraft that had originated in the United States. All this happened in the first year of the Revolution. The message from Washington was clear and Cuban lives had already been lost in the process.
The following year, 1960, the French ship, Le Coubre , carrying a Belgian cargo, blew up in Havana's harbor killing some 100 sailors and dock workers. In March, US President Eisenhower ordered CIA director Allen Dulles to organize and train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. By August the CIA was recruiting members of US organized crime - including Santos Traficante and Sam Giancana - to assassinate Fidel Castro who was then Prime Minister. The FBI under Hoover was fully aware of the plots and provided logistic support. The assassination attempts were later published in a damning report by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the late seventies.
By the end of 1960, 17 former Cuban police/army members under the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship were arrested for throwing sticks of dynamite into stores and theaters, and the year was seen out with a fire that destroyed a famous Havana department store -- all done with money and support from terrorist groups operating openly in Florida as they do to this day.
By then Cuba had obviously got the message and was aware of the plans to invade the island. However, although the island presented ample evidence of Washington's intention to the United Nations, the General Assembly rejected a debate on the issue. Clearly Cuba was on its own. The year 1961 brought on further bombings, as well as the despicable torture killings of a number of 17- and 18-year-olds who were teaching farmers in the provinces how to read. They were murdered by groups funded by the CIA in an attempt to destabilize the government in Havana and destroy a massive literacy campaign underway across the nation.
By April, after the fatal blowing up of another Havana department store, the pending invasion was obvious to Cuban authorities. It began on April 15, with B-26 bombers attacking the island's defenses, killing a number of civilians. Two days later the Bay of Pigs invasion began. Cuba defeated the US backed forces with the loss of yet more Cuban life: 176 people.
The attacks, the bombings, the assassination attempts went on. Over 600 plans or attempts on Fidel Castro's life alone are known to authorities -- from exploding cigars, to a wet suit lined with poison, to a pistol hidden in a camera. Two of the most recent have been the snipers arrested before attempting to kill the president on Venezuela's Margarita Island in 1997, and the bombing plot in Panama City in 1999 which netted international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, currently in jail in Panama awaiting trial. Things got to the point where the US allowed ships at sea to openly shell residential districts in Havana, as on August 24, 1962.
Who outside Cuba knows of the slaughter of half a million pigs after African swine fever was introduced into the island by the CIA in 1971? Who knows of the deaths of 81 children after their deliberate infection with dengue fever ten years later in 1981? Both instances were proven later, in declassified US documents, to be the result of CIA operations. And who can forget the bombing of a Cubana flight in 1976 with the loss of all 73 passengers and crew and the subsequent freeing of Orlando Bosch in 1990 by a US court after he was found to be the principal terrorist responsible for the crime?
In 1995 Leonel Macias González murdered a Cuban navy officer and hijacked a coast guard vessel to the United States. Macias assassinated Cuban navy officer Roberto Aguilar in Mariel Bay on August 8th, hijacked the boat, and afterwards picked up 24 passengers. Foreign Ministry official Rafael Dausa said that Cuba presented a video, and eye witness statements concerning the murder and statements to the effect that Macias himself admitted shooting the Cuban navy officer. US courts, however, did not take this evidence into consideration, and on April 17th , an INS appeals court granted political asylum to Macias. Cuba responded to his release by saying that it was the equivalent to condoning terrorism.
More recently, in 1997, came the bombings of tourist hotels in an attempt to destroy the tourist industry in Cuba. An Italian tourist was killed in one of the explosions. Subsequent investigation uncovered the hand of Posada Carriles with the financing of US government-sponsored organizations based in Miami.
These Cuban exile terrorists have been allowed to operate openly within the United States, where they are presented as heroes who are to be emulated. When Cuba legitimately attempts to defend itself by monitoring the actions of these organizations to prevent further terrorist acts against it, the United States government punishes those they catch with long prison sentences for combating the very same kind of despicable terrorism that so stupefied the world after its use against the World Trade Center.
If there's to be a serious effort made to bring an end to terrorism, it needs to be based on broad ethical and moral principles. Many in the world today ask how the US government can complain of Afghanistan harboring terrorists, when this very same government allows terrorists to operate openly on its own soil.
Jane Franklin´s book entitled “The Cuban Revolution and the United States: A Chronological History” lists the many terrorist actions and related acts perpetrated against Cuba from 1959 to 1990. The following covers 1990 to 2001:
TERRORIST ATTACKS AND RELATED ACTS AGAINST CUBA 1990-2001
July 17, 1990. Following lobbying by Florida Republican Congresspersons, Ileana Ross and Connie Mack, U.S. President George H. Bush released from jail well-known terrorist Orlando Bosch, the man chiefly responsible for the October 1976 mid-flight bombing of a Cuban civil airplane, killing all 73 on board.
October 14, 1990. Two armed terrorists clandestinely enter Santa Cruz del Norte with orders to carry out attacks. Their weapons and false documents supplied in Miami were confiscated. They also carried literature urging people to join what they called “The Cuban Liberation Army” headed by Higinio Díaz Anne who had given them money and propaganda before they set out.
May 15,1991. José Basulto, an ex-Bay of Pigs mercenary and well-known terrorist and CIA agent founded Brothers to the Rescue. He asked U.S. 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 in El Salvador. Congresswoman Ileana Ross started a public campaign and lobbied until the three planes were obtained. A photo of the planes received by this terrorist group appeared in the press for the first time with a July 19 article by the publisher of the Miami Herald, who flew with Brothers to the Rescue. The letters “USAF” (United States Air Force) are clearly visible on the planes.
September 17,1991. Two terrorists from Miami illegally enter Cuba to sabotage tourist centers and spread terror among foreign tourists. Their weapons and a radio transmitter were confiscated.
December 29, 1991. Three terrorists from the so-called Commandos L group in Miami entered Cuba illegally. Their weapons and other war materiel were confiscated. These three had received training with 50 or 60 other men in a camp on 168th Street in Miami.
May 8 1992. Cuba files a complaint with the United Nations about terrorist activities organized against 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 the U.S. territory because there is substantial proof concerning his past and present terrorist activities, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civil aviation plane in mid-flight. Today this individual freely walks the streets of Miami after George H. Bush granted him a presidential pardon.
July 4, 1992. A group of terrorists set out from the United States to attack economic targets along the Havana coastline. Once detected by Cuban patrol boats, they moved to waters off Varadero, where the U.S. Coastguard rescued them after their boat had a mechanical failure. The FBI released them after confiscating weapons, maps and videos made during their journey.
July 1992. An operation to infiltrate a U.S. terrorist into Cuba with the mission to sabotage an economic target in Villa Clara province failed. He was carrying the weapons and explosives needed for the job and had the assistance of Brothers to the Rescue who kept him informed about the position of the U.S. Coastguard to make it easier for him to reach Cuban territory without being discovered.
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 Varadero Meliá Hotel is carried out from a vessel manned by four Miami terrorists who were later arrested and questioned by the FBI, then released.
October 19, 1992. Three Miami based terrorists entered Cuba illegally well supplied with weapons and military equipment that were confiscated. At the same time, three other terrorists were arrested in the Bahamas with weapons and explosives apparently destined for Cuba, which were also seized from them. These terrorists had left Miami on October 17.
January 1993. Five terrorists on board a vessel armed with heavy machine guns and other weapons were arrested by the U.S. Coastguard as they were heading toward the Cuban coastline. They were soon released.
January 7, 1993. At a press conference in Miami, Tony Bryant, leader of the terrorist group “Commandos L” announced plans to carry out more attacks against targets in Cuba, especially hotels. He said: “from now on we are at war with Cuba” and warned foreign tourists to “stay away from Cuba.”
April 2, 1993. The tanker ship “Mikonos” sailing under the Cypriot flag was fired on 7 miles north of Matanzas from a vessel crewed by Cuban born, U.S. based terrorists.
May 18, 1993. Violation of Cuban airspace by a plane registered to Brothers to the Rescue with the number N8447.
May 21, 1993. Nine terrorists arrested by the U.S. Customs Service on board a vessel as they prepared to sail for Cuba to launch attacks on the island. Their weapons and explosives were seized. On August 21, Judge Lawrence King dismissed charges against them.
May 1993. Brothers to the Rescue planned to blow up a high-tension pylon near San Nicolás de Bari in Havana province.
October 1993. Brothers to the Rescue publicly encouraged attempts on the life of President Fidel Castro and violence against Cuba. It also confirmed its readiness to accept “the risks that come with doing this”. Andrés Nazario Sargén, head of terrorist group Alpha 66, makes an announcement in the United States that his organization has recently carried out five operations against Cuba.
October 18, 1993. A terrorist living in the United States is arrested on his arrival in Cuba. His orders were to carry out acts of violence on Cuban soil.
November 7, 1993. Humberto Pérez, spokesperson for Alpha 66, said in a press conference in Miami that their 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 affirmed.
1993. A Cuban citizen visiting the United States is recruited by a terrorist organization to carry out sabotage in Cuba against tourism and agricultural targets. He was supplied with some of the materials needed for such attacks and was offered the sum of 20,000 US dollars.
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 altitude over Havana and drop smoke bombs. In the following months of 1994 the same group carried out at least seven other similar violations of Cuba’s airspace.
September 4, 1994. Two U.S. based terrorists infiltrated into the area around Caibarién, Villa Clara, with the aim of carrying out sabotage in that province. A number of weapons and large amounts of military equipment were seized.
October 6, 1994. Another armed group fired automatic weapons at the “Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel” from a boat that set out from Florida.
October 15, 1994. A group of armed terrorists coming from the United States landed on the causeway to Cayo Santa María near Caibarién, Villa Clara, and murdered Arcelio Rodríguez García.
October 1994. Brothers to the Rescue uses one of its planes to train members of a Florida based terrorist organization to carry out acts of sabotage on the Cienfuegos oil refinery. In November of that same year, they also planned to make an attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro and other leaders of the Revolution and to smuggle arms and explosives into Cuba.
November 1994. Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and five of his accomplices smuggled weapons into Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, during the IV 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 his aim. Posada Carriles later told the New York Times: “I was standing behind some journalists and I saw Castro’s friend, García Márquez, but I could only see Castro from a long way away.”
November 11, 1994. Four terrorists were arrested in Varadero, Matanzas, after entering Cuba illegally. They were relieved of weapons and munitions.
March 2, 1995. Two terrorists from the United States are caught along the coast near Puerto Padre, Las Tunas. They were 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 Fé and Guanabo beach.
May 20, 1995. The “Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel” was once again attacked by terrorists manning a fast launch coming from the United States.
July 12, 1995. Three terrorists were arrested in the United States as they were preparing to sneak into Cuba using an act of provocation just off the Cuban coast as cover. Despite the discovery and confiscation of weapons and explosives, U.S. authorities released them.
July 13, 1995. Organized by Brothers to the Rescue eleven vessels, six light planes and two helicopters coming from the United States enter Cuban territorial waters and airspace. One of the light planes flew over the center of Havana and dropped propaganda material.
December 16, 1995. Two terrorists were arrested in the United States as they readied to enter Cuba clandestinely through Pinar del Río to carry out terrorist actions. Despite confiscation of their weapons and explosive, U.S. authorities released them.
January 9, 1996. Two light planes departing from Opa-locka airport in Florida violated Cuban airspace.
January 12, 1996. A Cuban immigrant living in the United States was arrested while trying to transport explosives from the City of Havana to Pinar del Río.
January 13, 1996. Several Brothers to the Rescue planes violated Cuban airspace over the City of Havana. Later, terrorist José Basulto comments: “They say I was flying over Cuban airspace, something everybody knows and which I have never denied.”
January 23, 1996. U.S. authorities intercepted a vessel in Marathon Key with five armed terrorists on board. It was headed for Cuba. The FBI released the five that same day.
February 11, 1996. After firing on the Cuban coastline, a vessel coming from the United States carrying three terrorists was captured by a Cuban Coastguard patrol.
February 24, 1996. Three Brothers to the Rescue light planes violated Cuban airspace over the heart of Havana and two of them were shot down. The plane that escaped was piloted by José Basulto who had deliberately provoked the incident that led to deaths of his four companions. In the 20 months prior to this incident there had been at least 25 other violations of Cuban airspace.
June 26, 1996. At 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 still has the insignia of the U.S. Air Force on it: “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 who entered Cuba illegally through Punta Alegre, Ciego de Ávila, on a boat carrying weapons and a great deal of military equipment.
21 October 1996. An SS-RR light plane, registration number N3093M owned by the U.S. State Department sprays a substance containing the agricultural pest “Thrip Palmi Karny” as it flies over the Girón international corridor about 25-30 kilometers south of Varadero.
November 1996. Miami television channel 23 carried a live interview with Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch where they stressed their intentions of continuing their terrorist activities against Cuba.
April 12, 1997. An explosive device was detonated in the “Meliá Cohíba” Hotel in the City of Havana.
April 30, 1997. Discovery of another explosive device in the “Meliá Cohíba” Hotel.
July 12, 1997. Bombs explode in the “Capri” and “National” hotels.
August 4, 1997. Another bomb exploded in the “Meliá Cohíba” Hotel.
August 11, 1997. The Miami press published a statement from the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) giving unconditional support to the terrorist bomb attacks against civilian and tourist targets in Cuba. The chairman of this organization claimed: “We do not think of these as terrorist actions” and went on to say that any action against Cuba was legitimate.
August 22, 1997. Bomb exploded in the “Sol Palmeras” Hotel in Varadero.
September 4, 1997. Several bombs exploded in the “Tritón”, “Chateau Miramar” and “Copacabana” hotels. The explosion in the latter killed young Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo. On that same day another bomb exploded at “La Bodeguita del Medio “ restaurant.
September 10, 1997. The Cuban Government announced the arrest of Salvadoran national Raúl Cruz León, the person responsible of 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 León admitted that he had been paid 4,500 US dollars for each bomb.
October 19, 1997. An explosive device was found in a tourist bus.
October 27, 1997. The U.S. Coastguard arrested a vessel west of Puerto Rico. They confiscated two high velocity .50 caliber rifles with their tripods, night vision gear, and military uniforms and communications equipment. These sophisticated weapons, strictly military in nature, are designed for long-range attacks on vehicles and aircraft. One of those on the vessel said that his aim was to assassinate President Fidel Castro when he arrived on Margarita Island, Venezuela, on November 7, 1997 to attend the Ibero-American Summit. U.S. authorities found that the vessel was registered to a Florida company whose chief executive officer, manager, secretary and treasurer is José Antonio Llama, a director of the CANF and a Bay of Pigs mercenary. One of the guns was registered in the name of José Francisco “Pepe” Hernández, CANF co-chairman. A member of Brigade 2506 had bought the other in 1994. The four crew members on the vessel were 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 terrorist group and a member of the terrorist organization Alpha 66. Despite their confessions and clear proof of the illegal possession of arms, false testimony and arms smuggling, these terrorists were acquitted by a Federal court in December 1999 after a rigged trial.
October 30, 1997. Discovery of an explosive device in a kiosk outside Terminal 2 at the “José Martí” International Airport in the City of Havana. Two men originally from El Salvador and three originally from Guatemala would later be arrested for crimes against tourist facilities. They all were linked to terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.
November 16, 1997. Following a two month investigation, a Florida newspaper reported that the series of bomb explosions in Havana were bankrolled and directed by Miami anti-Cuban groups and 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 clandestinely enter Santa Lucía, Pinar del Río. They had set out from the United States with a large number of weapons and war materiel.
June 16, 1998. After several meetings in which the Cuban Government gave information to the FBI and other U.S. Government agencies about terrorist activities concocted in the United States against Cuba, an official U.S. delegation traveled to Havana which included two high ranking FBI agents. They were given precise details, even film, recordings and other material evidence on the activities of 40 terrorists who operated out of the United States.
July 12, 1998. An article in The New York Times published statements by Cuban-American Antonio Jorge Álvarez concerning the fact that the FBI had not investigated information he had volunteered related to an attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro that was being planned for the Ibero-American Summit in Venezuela. Álvarez claimed that the previous year he had provided information that Posada Carriles, and a group working in his factory in Guatemala, were preparing this attempt and the bomb explosions in Havana: “I risked my business and my life and they did nothing,” he said.
July 12 and 13, 1998. In an interview with The New York Times, Luis Posada Carriles admitted to having organized the bomb campaign against Cuban tourist centers. He also acknowledged that the leaders of the 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: “Jorge Mas Canosa controlled everything, whenever I needed money he would say that he would give me $5,000, $10,000, even $15,000 and he did. ”Posada also admitted to having paid Raúl Cruz León for placing the bombs in Havana hotels. Referring to the Italian tourist killed by one of those bombs, he told the Times: “... he was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time.” In compiling these reports, the Times used CIA and FBI files, testimony from more than 100 people and more than 13 hours of recorded interviews with Posada Carriles and even documents signed by him.
July 23, 1998. The Miami press published 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 other weapons to Nicaragua for an attempt on the life of the Cuban President. It also mentions the Rodolfo Frómeta and Fausto Marimóm’s 1994 acquittals of charges of planning to use Stinger antiaircraft missiles and other weapons in terrorist attacks. The article quotes statements from well-known terrorist Tony Bryant who said that in 1989 the FBI stopped him in a boat loaded with weapons and explosives and they let him go. He added that he had been intercepted in two of his 14 missions against Cuba, but they never did anything to him.
August 2, 1998. Posada Carriles, in an interview for the program Opposing Points of View for CBS news, said that he intended to launch more attacks on Cuban facilities, either inside or outside the island.
August 1998. Even before President Fidel Castro’s announcement that he would attend the Summit of Heads of State and Government of CARIFORUM in the Dominican Republic, several Cuban born terrorists had planned an attempt on his life to be carried out some time between August 20 and 25. To that end, terrorist Posada Carriles arranged a meeting in the Guatemala City Holiday Inn Hotel one month before the summit to plan how to get weapons and explosives into Santo Domingo.
September 12 1998. Five Cuban men were arrested in Miami for permorming work that defended both Cuban and U.S. citizens from the terrorist actions which, with total impunity, are organized, prepared and launched against Cuba from the United States.
November 17, 2000. A group of terrorists headed by Posada Carriles was arrested in Panama. They had entered Panama with false documents to make an attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro during the X Ibero American Summit of Heads of State and Government. Their weapons, explosives and a sketch of Castro’s route and public meetings were seized from them. The Cuban American National Foundation is paying for the team of lawyers defending the terrorists.
April 26, 2001. Three terrorists of the Commandos Groups F-45 and Alpha 66 tried to land on the north coast of Villa Clara province and, after firing shots at Cuban coastguard troops who had spotted them, were taken prisoner. Four AKM rifles, one M-3 rifle with a silencer, 3 hand guns, a great deal of materiel, night vision equipment and communications equipment were confiscated to them, all of which they intended to use to carry out sabotage and terrorist actions on Cuban soil.
In addition to the plots listed above, Cuban authorities learned of 16 other plots to assassinate the President of Cuba, 8 plots to try to kill other leaders of the Revolution and 140 other terrorist plots hatched between 1990 and 2001. These were foiled, discouraged or prevented by the work of the Cuban Security and Intelligence Services including the important contributions of the five Cubans now serving long prison sentences for defending their country against the type of attacks you have just read about above. The following describe attacks of another type – the biological kind:
BIOLOGICAL WAR WAGED BY THE U.S. AGAINST CUBA
--1962: A US intelligence agent is known to have given several thousand dollars to a Canadian to introduce a disease infecting Cuban sea-turtles.
--1965: A plastic balloon descends on a farm in Santiago de las Vegas. When it hits the ground it expels a white dust that spreads to cane plantation which is later destroyed.
--1968: A foreign specialist working for an international agency is expelled after he is confirmed to have introduced a virus affecting coffee crops.
--1970: The US is caught seeding clouds over Cuba in an attempt to affect the sugar harvest. The project was part of a larger research plan called "The Cooling" which was intended to devise ways of manipulating the weather for political reasons.
--1971: African swine fever is introduced in Cuba. Cuba asserted that the container transporting the virus came from Fort Gullick, a US military base in the Panama Canal Zone. Those involved in the attack have since testified to their part. The entire pig population of Cuba had to be slaughtered.
--1977: Cane smut is detected in Pilón, eastern Cuba. The disease had never been known in Cuba until this date.
--1978: A previously unknown variety of the fungus Blue Mould hits the sugar crops causing losses of approximately 344 million pesos.
--1978: Sugar cane rust affects a new variety of cane imported from Barbados. As a result 1.35 million tones of sugar are lost.
--1979-80: Two different strains of African swine fever are discovered emanating from distinct areas of contamination. Three hundred thousand pigs are slaughtered.
--1981: A previously unknown Bovine skin disease erupts affecting cows and bullocks throughout the island.
--1981: A sudden outbreak of hemorrhagic dengue fever affects 350,000 people. One hundred and fifty-eight people, mostly children, die from the disease. The outbreak had three initial breeding grounds in Cienfuegos and Camagüey, all very close to international air corridors. Just prior to the outbreak it was discovered that the entire personnel at the Guantanamo naval base had been vaccinated against dengue. As a result there was not a single case of the disease in the base.
--1981: Hemorraghic conjunctivitis caused by the Enterovirus 70 strain spreads throughout the island. The Pan American Health Organization is baffled because this strain had never been seen in the hemisphere before.
--1984: Eduardo Arocena, of Cuban origin and head of the Omega-7 terrorist organization, stands trial in the US accused of the murder of Felix Garcia Rodriguez, a Cuban diplomat to the UN. During the trial Arocena confesses to having introduced 'germs' into Cuba as part of the US biological war against Cuba. He affirms that the dengue outbreak was introduced into the island by terrorist groups.
--1984: An outbreak of dysentery causes the death of 18 children in Guantánamo province. Investigators pin down the start of the outbreak to two workers who had participated in a festive activity inside the US Guantánamo naval base. The strain was again of a type previously unknown in Cuba.
--1985: An infectious bronchitis poultry virus seriously disrupts egg production.
--1989: Ulcerative mammillitis in dairy cattle caused by a herpes virus spreads throughout the island affecting milk yields.
--1990: Black sigatoka, infects banana plantations throughout the island. Once again the disease had been hitherto unknown on the island. The disease appeared precisely as Cuba began to put plans into action to start intensive banana production.
--1991: Acariasis disease which affects bees is discovered, just as Cuban honey begins to be exported.
--1991: Thirty thousand tobacco seedlings are discovered to be infected with Fusorio, which once in the soil means tobacco production has to be halted for three years.
--1992: Black plant louse which carries a citrus disease known as Tristeza (sadness) is discovered.
--1994: Citric sapper blight is found in Pinar del Rio and Camagüey.
--1993: 122,135 rabbits have to be slaughtered after an outbreak of a viral disease.
--1995: February 10. A camera case in the luggage of a visiting US scientist is found to contain four small test tubes of a biological substance. On examination it is discovered to be the citric Tristeza virus.
--1995: Coffee borer is discovered in Granma province. Losses of 80 per cent were attributed to it and considerable resources have had to be spent on containing it.
--1996: Varroasis, another bee disease, is diagnosed in three apiaries in Matanzas. Previously unknown in Cuba, this disease is the worst of all that affect honey production in the world.
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The impunity with which these attacks are carried out from US terroritory begs the question : How do they get away with it? Most of all because the United States corporate media has done such a good job of demonizing Cuba over the past four decades. Whenever friends from North America or Europe come to visit they are astounded by the fact that all they learned over the years about this island is either completely untrue or, at best, grossly exaggerated. Even people of progressive thinking tend to arrive with a romanticized, uninformed view of the social project Cuba is maintaining in spite of the kind of political, economic and physical terrorism described above. The enormous sums of money and power that the right-wing Cuban American community in Florida wields has, of course, the political clout necessary to keep successive presidents in line with their anti-Cuba agenda. With this site www.antiterroristas.cu we are attempting to provide as much information as possible to offset this ruthless campaign against Cuba for simply seeking a different form of democracy. In light of the above, it should be clear just how necessary it is for Havana to send courageous people like René, Gerardo, Fernando, Antonio and Ramón to infiltrate and monitor the terrorism openly and unashamedly perpetrated against this island from the United States.
simon@rhc.cu