CUBA-JUSTICE: Attacks Came from Miami, Authorities Say

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Sep 11 1997 (IPS) - The perpetrator of a recent chain of attacks on Cuba’s tourist industry turned out to be a former Salvadoran soldier, according to police here. But the most important thing for local authorities was proving that the threat came from Miami, not from home.

A communique issued by the Interior Ministry put to rest reports published by the U.S. press over the past few weeks maintaining that internal opposition groups had finally resorted to terrorism to overthrow President Fidel Castro.

Cuba not only accuses a Cuban exile organisation of planning the bombings – in which a 32-year-old Italian businessman was killed last week – but also the U.S. government of tolerating the organisation in U.S. territory of more than 30 terrorist operations against the Caribbean island nation in the past three years.

“It is difficult to believe that the experienced and sophisticated U.S. security and intelligence services were incapable of aborting those plans and detaining their organisers,” says the ministry communique published Thursday by ‘Granma’, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party.

Raul Cruz from El Salvador reportedly earned 4,500 dollars for each successful attack. By the time he was arrested here on Sep. 4, he had allegedly carried out six bombings, which earned him 27,000 dollars.

According to official reports, Cruz admitted to having smuggled C-4 explosives into Cuba and staging the Jul. 12 explosions in the Capri and Nacional hotels and the Sep. 4 bombings in the Copacabana, Chateau Miramar and Triton hotels and the La Bodeguita del Medio restaurant.

An Aug. 4 explosion in the hobby of the Melia Cohiba hotel and other unconfirmed incidents in that hotel and the resort town of Varadero – 140 kms from Havana – remain unexplained.

“The detainee confessed that his only motivation was monetary,” the Interior Ministry communique says. “He described himself as a daring adventurer, and said he was indifferent to the objective of his attacks, or the country affected.”

Local security bodies reported that traces of explosives were found on the suspect’s hands, under his fingernails and on his personal effects at the time of arrest, and that his clothes corresponded to descriptions provided by witnesses to the bombings. A list of tourist installations in Cuba, tools, electric materials and a drawing detailing the method for installing explosive devices like the ones used in the attacks were reportedly found in his possession.

Authorities added that Cruz admitted to having belonged to the Salvadoran army, where he was trained as a paratrooper and took courses in explosives and as a sniper with U.S. military trainers.

Last week’s Copacabana explosion, in which Italian citizen Fabio Di Celmo was killed, was condemned as a terrorist act by several countries.

Armed Forces Minister, General Raul Castro swore that Cuba’s security forces would find “a needle in a haystack.”

Six days after Cruz was arrested, local security forces announced that investigations had revealed “an operation meticulously organised from Miami by a subversive structure subordinate to the National Cuban-American Foundation” (NCAF).

The NCAF, headed by influential Cuban-American businessman Jorge Mas Canosa, had released a communique defending the right of Cuban inhabitants to use “any instrument within their reach” to overthrow the Castro administration.

Cuban authorities found it strange that from the very start, reports in the Miami press pinned the blame for the bombings on internal opposition groups in Cuba or members of the local security forces.

The Interior Ministry said that Cuba had proof all along that the attacks were organised in the United States.

A U.S. diplomat said in Havana Tuesday that his government had sent four messages to Cuban authorities asking for evidence of the origin of the explosives, but had not received any response.

The U.S. administration “seems to be open to the idea that the explosions were planned in Miami, but is asking for something more concrete, in order to be able to work on solid ground,” he added.

The Cuban government says the NCAF has sufficient financial resources to employ, outfit and train professional terrorists, and provide them with operating methods that would throw off investigators.

“Cuban security forces knew that a network of mercenaries dedicated to international terrorism and drug trafficking operated in El Salvador, with close ties to the Cuban counter- revolutionaries in Miami,” said the Interior Ministry.

The communique adds that from April 1994 to September 1997, local security services received information on more than 30 terrorist plans against Cuba planned in Miami, including more than 15 using C-4 explosives.

The Cuban government says the operations were planned by the NCAF and other groups of Cuban exiles like Alpha 66, the PUND and a group led by Orlando Bosch, one of the individuals who planned the 1976 bombing of a Cuban Aviation plane in which more than 70 people were killed.

According to the Interior Ministry, “the majority of the plans were frustrated, arms, explosives and other objects showing evidence of their origin were seized, and several of the individuals involved – who without exception had come to Cuba from the United States – were arrested.”

Cuba has provided U.S. authorities with pertinent information on several occasions, the ministry said, adding that it possessed “additional elements” that it would not reveal for “operational reasons.”