By Patricio Montesinos
For six decades, Cuba has been the target of all kinds of terrorism, from bomb attacks on airplanes, hotels and their embassies, attempts to assassinate their top leaders, attacks with firearms on their diplomatic representations and offices abroad, to the criminal blockade that is still being imposed despite the unanimous rejection of the international community.
All these violent events have been orchestrated and financed from US territory, whose regimes proclaim themselves anti-terrorist fighters, and even dare to make a spurious list of countries that sponsor terrorism, in which they blatantly include the Caribbean nation.
On October 6th, 1976, members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and notorious mercenaries paid by Washington exploded with bombs a Cuban airline plane in mid-flight, as it took off from Barbados with its final destination to Havana.
In this heinous crime, 73 innocent people lost their lives, mostly Cubans, including their young fencing team, and yet their murderers were never tried as they deserved, thanks to the protection of their employers.
Similar criminal acts have been perpetrated against the Antillean island since the triumph of its Revolution, on January 1st, 1959, and have not ceased to this day.
The most recent of all was an attack, in the early hours of April 30th, on the Cuban Embassy in Washington, carried out by a citizen named Alexander Alazo, who deliberately fired an Ak-47 machine gun against the headquarters of the legation.
Despite the continuous requests of the Havana authorities to clarify this military action and to judge its author as he deserves, the White House maintains absolute silence in this regard, which makes it an accomplice once more to terrorism than for 60 years feed to Cuba.
The list of violent subversive actions from and in the United States against the largest of the Antilles is endless.
Let us remember the unsuccessful mercenary invasion of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), in 1961, the intentional explosion of the ship La Coubre in the Havana port, in 1960, and the kidnappings and attacks with explosive devices on diplomats in several capitals, which ended with the lives of hundreds of Cubans.
Among so many criminal acts, we cannot forget the more than 600 assassination attempts of the historical leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, and the bomb attacks in hotels and restaurants in Havana in 1997, with the result of a deceased young Italian, numerous injuries and great material damage.
Despite this permanent aggressiveness encouraged and paid for by Washington, Cuba has repeatedly cooperated with the United States in the fight against terrorism, and its special intelligence services, including the CIA, knows this very well.
The Caribbean nation has always rejected and condemned all forms of terrorism, including that of the State, and an example of this was having been one of the first countries to do so when the demolition of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11th 2001.
In all international settings, it has also reiterated that terrorism continues to be a serious challenge for the international community, and cannot be eradicated as long as double standards, manipulation, selectivity and political opportunism prevail to confront it.
"An Island on a Continent" 