34 Years of the Bombing of a Cubana Civilian Aircraft in Barbados

On June of 1976, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch participated in the creation of the terrorist coalition named CORU in the Dominican Republic at the service of the US intelligence services. CORU constituted a fascist ideological coalition made up by the most violent terrorists with the objective of destroying the Revolution. Among some of the most active groups in this coalition were Accion Cubana, Brigada 2506, Cuban Liberation Front, Alpha 66, Abdala and the Cuban Nationalist Movement.

Heading this coalition was Orlando Bosch. The man that would back his terrorist activities was Luis Posada Carriles, who participated actively in the international conspiracy. Under the influence of CORU and the decisive operational role of Posada Carriles in Venezuela, they carried out terrorist actions against Cuban embassies in Peru, Colombia, Guyana, Canada and Venezuela. A group directed by Posada alongside Orlando Bosch and following a previous agreement in a meeting in which CORU would be constituted, planed the unsuccessful bombing of Cubana airliner Flight 467 from Panama to Havana.

On July 9th a bomb went off on a luggage found in a Cubana airliner in Kingston, Jamaica whose take off was delayed 40 minutes due to operational causes. Thanks to this a catastrophe was avoided.

On July 10th another artifact exploded in the offices of British West Indian Airlines in Barbados, placed according to reports by Hernan Ricardo and Freddy Lugo, both at the service of Posada’s “agency” and later direct participants of the bombing of the Cubana airliner in that same location.

On July 11th, another bomb went off in the offices of Air Panama in Colombia and days later shots against the Cuban embassy in that South American country were carried out. A terrorist commando headed by Posada Carriles was the presumed authors with the participation of Hernan Ricardo who traveled to that country with the objective of provoking a large scale terrorist incident.

On October 6th, 1976, a bomb went off on a Cubana airliner in midair off the coast of Barbados killing the 73 passengers on board. This has been the most horrendous crime so far in which after 34 years the Cuban people have not forgotten. The Cuban people are still full of indignation and sadness.

After the Venezuelan authorities detained Posada Carriles accused of the sabotage against the Cuban civilian aircraft, the US government made sure that he was not tried and proposed that Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch be handed over to them.

The US government was the principal intellectual author of that horrendous crime. This was not an isolated case. Declassified documents show that US intelligence services were always on top of what CORU was up to and its attempts to explode a Cuban aircraft in midair. This is another reason why Washington has always refused to extradite Posada Carriles to Venezuela and be tried for the bombing that killed 73 innocent people on board.

The CIA and US government later helped Posada Carriles escape from prison in Venezuela, offering him an important mission in Washington’s dirty war in Central America.

Years later the White House welcomed Bosch into the US after George Bush Senior pardoned him and Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso illegally pardoned Luis Posada Carriles after being arrested for illegal entering Panama and attempt to assassinate Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro during a solidarity activity at the University of Panama. Posada Carriles later entered the US illegally with the help of his terrorist friends in southern Florida.

Since then confessed assassin Luis Posada Carriles walks the streets of Miami freely while Gerardo, Rene, Antonio, Ramon and Fernando, the Cuban Five as they are known internationally, are suffering harsh prison terms in the US for having infiltrated extreme right wing groups in Miami in an attempt to stop terrorist activities against Cuba.

The Cuban people deserve justice!