/REPEAT/CUBA: Italian Tourist Killed in Latest Wave of Hotel Bombings

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Sep 4 1997 (IPS) - An Italian tourist was killed in an explosion that occurred around noon in a hotel in the Cuban capital, while two other bombings caused only material damages.

The explosions were the latest in a series of attacks on Cuba’s tourist industry, which has outstripped sugar as the country’s leading foreign exchange-earner in the past few years.

The bombs exploded in the lobbies of the Copacabana, Chateau Miramar and Triton hotels, located in the upscale neighbourhood of Miramar, from 12:00 to 13:00 local time (16:00 to 17:00 GMT).

The bombings, as others carried out in the past few months, caused scarce material damages.

But unlike previous incidents, which caused no injuries, an Italian tourist was killed in one of Thursday’s attacks.

The first rumours of attacks on Cuba’s tourist industry circulated in April when the local press reported that an explosion destroyed a bathroom in the discotheque of the Melia Cohiba hotel, one of the country’s most exclusive tourist installations.

In the same period, the U.S. press also reported another bombing in the Melia Cohiba hotel, and two others in the resort town of Varadero, Cuba’s leading tourist centre, 140 kms from Havana.

The rumours seemed to have been confirmed when at noon on Jul. 12 two bombs went off within ten minutes of each other in the lobbies of the Capri and Nacional hotels, in downtown Havana.

The next bombing incident occurred early in the morning on Aug. 4 in the Melia Cohiba hotel. And on Aug. 22, another explosion took place in the Sol Palmeras de Varadero hotel, which the management blamed on an “overcharged transformer.”

Cuba’s Interior Ministry declared on Jul. 12 that it had evidence that the bombing materials and perpetrators had come from the United States.

Deputy Minister of Tourism Eduardo Rodriguez de la Vega announced Jul. 21 that the authors of the attacks had links with Cuban exiles in Miami who worked with organisations close to the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Rodriguez played down the damage that the incidents could cause Cuba’s booming tourist industry, adding that flights to the country remained packed and tour operators had not reported any changes.

Representatives of several underground groups condemned the bombings, and denied that their perpetrators had ties to any known dissident movements.

Local analysts say the bombing incidents are designed to sabotage Cuba’s main source of foreign currency and help prevent Cuba from pulling out of the devastating economic crisis that has gripped it since 1990.

More than one million tourists visited the Caribbean island nation in 1996. Figures are not yet available for 1997, but the number was projected to surpass last year’s total. Officials estimate that the number of visitors has risen 18.5 percent since 1995.