Explosion of the USS Maine: pretext for intervention

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 15 (ACN) Cuba remembers today the explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine 125 years ago in the Havana harbor, used by the United States as a pretext to intervene in the Spanish-Cuban war of independence.

On the occasion of the new anniversary, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez wrote on his Twitter account that the United States meddled in a liberation struggle that Cuba was already winning and seized the country until 1959, whereas VP Salvador Valdés Mesa pointed out that the blowing-up of the Maine was an imperialist excuse for an intervention intended to rob the Island of the independence for which it had fought so hard against Spain.

The U.S.S. Maine arrived in Havana on January 25, 1898 for a routine visit. Two days later, on the night of February 15, a detonation sank the ship, killing more than half of the crew. Following U.S. media campaigns claiming that the Spanish were responsible an investigation by the U.S. Navy, Washington declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898.

Historians agree that the explosion was just a pretext for the United States to intervene in Cuba's war of independence against Spain through a military intervention and the creation of a Republic that served the interests of the North American country.