Raúl Castro recounts 60 years of dirty war encouraged by the US against Cuba

Army General Raúl Castro says in an article published in Granma that the history of aggression “by anti-Cuban groups organized, trained and financed in the United States is extensive and very well documented.”

“For years, attacks against coastal cities, fishermen and Cuban vessels established a pattern of violence that has lasted more than six decades to the present day,” recalls one of the prominent commanders of the Cuban Revolution.

He states that the incidents are not isolated cases and cites the armed event that occurred in the waters of the El Pino channel, Cayo Falcones, municipality of Corralillo, province of Villa Clara, where a boat with Florida registration (FL7726sh) opened fire on a coast guard unit from the Ministry of the Interior.

“To cite just a few examples, in 1963, two landing craft from a mother ship opened fire with bazookas and machine guns at the Patricio Lumumba sulfuric acid factory on the north coast of Pinar del Río,” he writes.

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Another notable case, reports the general, was the criminal action against Cuban fishermen carried out directly by the US authorities on February 3, 1964, when several units of the US Navy approached and seized the Cuban fishing boats Lambda 8, Lambda 39, Cárdenas 14 and Cárdenas 19 in international waters, together with their 38 crew members.

“One of the most heinous attacks was committed on October 2, 1971, by two fast boats from Florida against the coastal community of Boca de Samá, in the municipality of Banes, Holguín. The result of this ‘brave action’ were two deaths and four injuries, including the sisters Nancy (15 years old) and Ángela Pavón (13 years old)”, says the commander.

He also recounts the case of October 1972, when several armed speedboats attacked the Cuban fishing boats Aguja and Plataforma 4 near Andros Island, in the Bahamas. A year later, the Cuban fishing boats Cayo Largo 34 and Cayo Largo 17 suffered the same fate, with fisherman Roberto Torna Mirabal being fatally injured.

“Thus, on April 6, 1976, a pirate boat attacked two Cuban fishing vessels, Ferro 123 and Ferro 119, sinking them with machine gun fire in the area between Cayo Anguila and Cayo Sal. The crew of Ferro 123 was injured and adrift. In another incident, in 1992, a North American vessel collided with a Cuban patrol boat, causing the the sinking of the first and the death of several crew members. The list of criminal actions carried out by pirate vessels from North American territory is long. It is time to put an end to these practices”, he concludes.

Documented cases:

• October 14, 1990: Terrorists Gustavo Rodríguez Sosa and Tomás Ramos Rodríguez infiltrated Santa Cruz del Norte, Havana;
• September 17, 1991: Two Miami terrorists were arrested. Their aim was to sabotage tourist shops. Weapons and a radio transmitter were seized;
• December 29, 1991: Two individuals from Miami were captured in Cárdenas, Matanzas. Their plans included sabotaging economic facilities and other public and recreational services;
• October 7, 1992: The Meliá Varadero Hotel was attacked by an armed vessel belonging to the terrorist organization Comandos I;
• April 2, 1993: The Maltese-flagged tanker Mykonos, with a Cuban-Cypriot crew, was strafed seven kilometers north of Matanzas;
• February 11, 1996: Shots were fired at the Hotel Meliá Las Américas by a speedboat that entered the site during the night;
• May 19, 1996: Terrorists residing in the United States landed on the coast of Pinar del Río with the mission, among others, of establishing a bandit base in the mountains of that region;
• September 17, 1996: Cuban terrorist Pedro Pablo Pulido Ortega was captured. He had infiltrated the Chambas area, in Ciego de Ávila, with a shipment of weapons, ammunition and other supplies to carry out terrorist attacks;
• April 26, 2001: Counterrevolutionaries living in Miami, linked to the F-4 Comandos and Alpha 66 organizations, were captured while trying to infiltrate the northern area of ​​Villa Clara.