3 weeks on: US silence following terrorist attack on Cuban Embassy

Cuba’s Foreign Ministry was yesterday (21 May 2020) demanding answers from the United States three weeks after the island’s embassy in Washington was the target of a terrorist attack on 30 April 2020.

The Cuban Embassy in Washington, only a few blocks from the White House, was attacked by Alexander Alazo Baró with an AK-47. 32 rounds were fired at the building, with a clear intention to kill diplomatic staff – although thankfully no one was killed in the attack.

The Trump administration has issued no official statement on the attack and has not responded to diplomatic requests for information from Cuba’s Foreign Ministry.

The public in Britain could be forgiven for having no knowledge of the attack given that the terrorist act received almost no coverage in Britain’s monopoly media.

Speaking yesterday Carlos Fernández de Cossío, the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s director for the United States stated, “after 20 days, the United States government continues to refuse to issue a statement. Every day that passes is a day that demonstrates its complicity. This silence is a complicit silence.”

Referring to the counterproductive inclusion of Cuba in the US list of nations “that do not collaborate with the U.S. government in the fight against terrorism,” noting that Washington “knows, as does the international community, that Cuba has a clear and consistent position against terrorism. Cuba has been a victim of terrorism.”

With respect to the growing hostility of the Trump White House, Fernández de Cossío stated, “This administration has made a political commitment to take extreme action to put an end to the Cuban Revolution.”

There is a long history of direct and indirect terrorist attacks by United States and extremist groups against Cuba, including the bombing of Cuban civilian aircraft mid-flight, in addition to the 57-year long blockade of the socialist island. This attack, as with previous waves of terror was preceded by rabid campaigns of smears and threats and attempts to discredit Cuba’s work in the international arena, alongside tightening of the economic siege.

Over 3,478 Cubans have been killed by US sponsored terrorism since the Revolution with another 2,099 left disabled, in addition to incalculable economic damage. These acts have always been carried out with material support of the US government or with its blessing under CIA directives.

Hundreds of terrorist groups centred around Miami have been created, financed and trained by the CIA, organizations that had in their ranks notorious killers like Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampol, among others.

The perpetrator of the most recent attack, Alexander Alazo Baró, attended a church called the Doral Jesus Worship Centre. One of his “friends” at the centre, Pastor Frank Lopez, maintains close relations with none other than Republican Senator and previous contender for the US Presidential Nomination, Marco Rubio,  as well as Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart and other well known anti-Cuban extremists.

Challenge News Desk

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on email
Share on whatsapp
Share on print