The explosion of La Coubre or the real terror

Those who nowadays lie and accuse Cuba of promoting terrorism cannot cover up with a finger the arrival of dates like these close to the commemoration, in this land, of the 64th anniversary of the barbaric attack that on March 4, 1960 blew up the French steamship La Coubre, anchored in the port of Havana.

This happens because the memory of the just is infallible and always brings to light who is who above perversity and lies.

On the day in question, a frightening deflagration with a destructive and deafening expansive force shook Havana at approximately 3:10 p.m.; and that unforgettable roar still beats in the conscience of many of the city's old neighbors.

A few minutes before, port workers and the ship's personnel had been busily unloading a cache of 1,492 boxes of armaments destined for the defense of the country, coming from Belgium, at the place where the accident occurred.

After the first detonation, another one followed a few minutes later, at a time when numerous people and the main leaders of the Island, including the maximum leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, were helping the surviving victims, and were trying to continue unloading the ship, trying to get away from the place of the tragedy.

As observers and citizens presumed, such macabre event was not an accident, but a savage attack orchestrated by the CIA and the ruler of the United States, President Dwight Eisenhower, who since before the triumph and after January 1st, even more, did everything possible to destroy the Revolution.

The historical antecedents were conclusive. In February and March 1960, sabotage to the economy, aggressions, assassinations, plots and the support of counterrevolutionary groups from inside and outside the nation, paid by Washington, had increased.

And there is an objective coincidence pointing out from the very beginning the real perpetrator of such events, nothing manipulated or false as are the lies and lies of all kinds with which our Homeland is attacked on the aforementioned subject.

One only has to look at statistics based on real events of the time, which do not lie, in spite of being denied or hidden for a time.

And it is clear that terrorism has been a weapon and a modus operandi used systematically up to the present against the revolutionary process and the Cuban people, a legacy taken up by the Kennedy administration and those that followed, of which many of its protagonists have boasted in a shameless, unbelievable manner.

Such a record has cost Cuba thousands of mortal victims and physically handicapped, much blood and tears shed that cannot be forgotten.

The bombing of La Coubre killed about 100 people, injured another 200, among whom many were left with serious after-effects for life, caused serious damage to the economy, to valuable structures and entities of the port.

However, such a horrible act as that one, as we know, did not make the transforming and constructive march brought by the First of January to the Cubans, in full enjoyment since January 1959 of a sovereign territory and committed to projects of equality and social justice, of national development, give up one iota.
In spite of the great initial shock, the people immediately got involved in tasks with a high humanism.

Witnesses and survivors still remember with astonishment how many, instead of moving away from the inferno that the burning ship had become, ran towards that smoldering wreck in mortal danger, ready to save lives and help in any way they could.

It was not a casual event, we repeat, because there is too much evidence to fit in this space, although some of it is important.

Strict compliance with safety protocols was exhaustively verified by the manufacturers of the Belgian military industry, the French shipping company, the Havana port authorities, the revolutionary police and the Armed Forces of the Island, something that was carried out before starting the landing of grenades and ammunition.

After the incident, tests were carried out, by order of the then Prime Minister, Fidel Castro, by dropping from an airplane at a considerable height some unharmed boxes of grenades, coming from the stores of the steamship, to check their possible vulnerability, and the compliance with the manufacturer's safety standards was ratified. There was no explosion with that test.

But there were some very striking stopovers in the ship's transit to Havana. The ship made stipulated entries at the roadsteads of Le Havre, France, from where it had originally departed and returned already loaded, and at a bay in Virginia and another in Miami, Florida.

At these points there were boardings and disembarkations of civilian passengers, among them a highly suspicious American, purported to be a reporter, under the name of Donald Lee Chapman, whose real identity could not be verified.

The company that owned "La Coubre" hired US divers to analyze the wreckage of the ship, which had already made other trips to Cuba. In the monstrous event, Gallic employees and sailors also died.

But in spite of that, the results of that investigation, strictly technical in principle, were kept under seven keys, with prohibition of disclosure.

Calculations made by experts considered that the explosive charge must have been prepared to detonate, as it did, when a certain volume of weight was released. And everything points to the fact that its installation occurred when it anchored in Virginia.

The CIA director, in January and February 1960, presented his plans to the Agency's Special Planning Group and in a meeting they discussed at length a project of concrete actions.

In Cuba, the newspaper Revolucion had denounced since the beginning of March and even before the attack on the port, the text of the US Congress bill legalizing the first package of economic measures against the Antilles. But along with projects to damage the economy, more sinister actions were being carried out under the same orders.

The tragedy occurred on a Friday and from late at night and early in the morning of the following day, March 5, the Palace of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba received the mortal remains of the victims up to that moment identified, where tribute was paid to them.

The people of Havana, on behalf of all Cubans, took to the streets in the impressive funeral procession held on Saturday, to accompany them to the Christopher Columbus necropolis. It is said that the compact mass extended for five kilometers.

Shortly before the entrance to the cemetery, at the intersection of 23rd and 12th Streets, Fidel Castro said farewell to the mourning procession and spoke to his compatriots about the evidence that suggested that this was an intentional act, plotted by those who were the main adversaries of the Revolution.

The Cuban leader did not hesitate to denounce the enemies of the Cubans, defenders of their freedom. He said that at that time freedom also meant Homeland. It was there that the slogan "Homeland or Death" was heard for the first time, as a song of combat and life. That still accompanies us with honor and firmness. A feeling that true patriots never regret.