Cuban people demand justice

Cuban people demand justice

Cuba is one of the world's countries upon which the scourge of terrorism has been unleashed most brutally and ruthlessly. For more than 50 years, it has faced a systematic policy of state terrorism.

All of the variants attempted against the Cuban people – from military aggression, bombings, fires, hijackings of airplanes and boats, kidnapping Cuban citizens, to attacks on embassies, the strafing of dozens of Cuban facilities and the implementation of vile plans to compromise the population's health through biological warfare, the introduction of agricultural pests to damage the country's principal crops – have resorted to the most contemptible tactics to destroy the social and economic life of the country.

As a result of this policy of state terrorism, Cuba has lost precious lives: 3,478 Cubans have died as victims of these cowardly acts and 2,099 have been permanently disabled.

Along with this, Cuban men and women of several generations have had to face the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade, which constitutes the most flagrant and systematic violation of human rights of the entire Cuban population, and which has represented more than 975 billion dollars as a direct economic damages caused to the Cuban people by its implementation up until December of 2010.

On 6 October, 35 years ago, 73 lives were cut short in the mid-flight explosion of a Cuban airliner, a monstrous act of terrorism, organized and committed with the knowledge of the United States government. The martyrs of Barbados, as they are known by our people, are among the many victims for whom Cubans continue to demand justice.

The United States government, still today refuses to prosecute one of those responsible for the criminal act, Luis Posada Carriles, a confessed murderer and active terrorist.

The way in which the United States government has acted toward the assassins at liberty in the streets of Miami provokes profound indignation in the Cuban people. Particularly so in the case of Luis Posada Carriles, in the wake of the scandalous proceedings which culminated in his pardon and refuge, as happened previously with Orlando Bosh Avila, granted a presidential pardon by George Bush Sr. despite the weight of evidence of his terrorist activities.

Not a single terrorist has been arrested in U. S. in connection with terrorist actions against Cuba. On the contrary, while those criminals enjoy complete impunity in the U. S. territory, five Cuban Heroes were unjustly convicted because they averted many more crimes similar to the sabotage of the Cubana airliner, saving the lives of hundreds of Cuban and American citizens and people of other nationalities.

Their unjust imprisonment, the rigged and arbitrary trials, the inhumane way in which they have been treated, and the dangers and tension in the prisons in which they have been held, are cruel evidence of the double standards of U.S. policy concerning the so-called war on terror. The most recent reflection of that is the treatment to René González, who was released last October 7 after 13 years in prison, by forcing him to remain in the United States for another three years on probation, which constitutes a serious threat to his physical integrity.

Most spurious has been the U.S. government's shameless inclusion of Cuba on its notorious list of countries which sponsor terrorism, in an attempt to justify before world opinion its policy of hostility against Cuba.

Cuba and its Revolution have exhibited and maintained upstanding behavior in the face of terrorism. Cuban cooperation with the United States in relation to terrorism has been constant. Our country has signed the 13 existing international agreements on terrorism and strictly fulfills the commitments and obligations arising from resolutions approved in the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. In 2001, the National Assembly of People's Power approved the Law against Acts of Terrorism.

By law, October 6 in Cuba is the Day of the Victims of State Terrorism, in honor of and to the eternal memory of those who died, and the day to reaffirm the unyielding and steadfast position of Cuba: "The Cuban government and people reaffirm their decision to continue condemning and confronting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, in particular state terrorism, wherever it is committed and whatever the reasons put forward by its perpetrators."

Cuba has not received any response whatsoever on the part of the U.S. government.

The pain of our people is further increased in the face of impunity. Today, we still weep with the loved ones of the victims of that abominable crime, but we have and will continue to reassert Fidel’s sentence at the funeral of the dead: "When a powerful and determined people weeps, injustice trembles!"

ENDS

© Scoop Media