US continues protecting terrorists, Cuban foreign ministry statement

HAVANA, Cuba, May 10 (ACN) Cuban foreign ministry (Minrex by its Spanish acronym) issued a statement after learning of the decision of a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued on May 1, 2024, which acquitted Alexander Alazo Baro of the four charges against him, as a result of the terrorist attack perpetrated by him against the Cuban embassy to the United States.

The judge alleged conditions of insanity of the perpetrator of the terrorist attack against the Cuban diplomatic headquarters, which occurred in the early morning of April 30, 2020.

Due to its importance, we transmit the Mirex Statement in its entirety.

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has learned with deep concern the decision of a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, issued on May 1, 2024, which acquitted Alexander Alazo Baro of the four charges against him, as a result of the terrorist attack perpetrated by him against the Cuban embassy to the United States in the early morning of April 30, 2020, for which he alleged insanity of the perpetrator.

Alazo, a person of Cuban origin who has lived in the United States since 2010, fired all 32 bullets from a magazine of an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle at the Cuban diplomatic headquarters in Washington, causing extensive material damage to the exterior and interior of the building and endangering the lives of several people inside the building.

He himself confessed that he went with the intention of hitting whatever was in front of him, including human beings if they had been in his line of fire. This was a terrorist act in the capital city of the United States against a permanent diplomatic headquarters.

At the time of his arrest, Alazo's regular association with the Doral Jesus Worship Center in Miami Dade, where people with known behavior in favor of aggression, hostility, violence and extremism against Cuba meet, was well known.

The terrorist was immediately arrested at the scene and the United States government charged him with four crimes under the United States Federal Code. However, it has been unable to qualify the action for what it is: a terrorist act.

The politicization by the United States of the attack perpetrated against the Cuban embassy to Washington was evident from the very first moments. This is demonstrated by the lengthy process to analyze proven facts.

Four years after the events and in a criminal proceeding full of opacity, the judge accepted a joint report by the Prosecutor's Office and the defense of the terrorist Alexander Allazo Baro, which presents the perpetrator as someone who, at the time of the events, was not in possession of his mental faculties and, therefore, declares him innocent.

This decision sends a dangerous message of impunity to those who intend to take violent actions against diplomatic headquarters in the city of Washington.

On September 24, 2023, in the evening hours, an individual threw two Molotov cocktails over the perimeter fence of the Cuban embassy to Washington and against the front wall of that facility. It is an event that occurred three years and five months after the attack perpetrated by Alazo. Even U.S. law enforcement authorities claim not to know the perpetrator or have details of what happened.

These terrorist acts are a direct result of the aggressive policy and rhetoric of the U.S. government against Cuba, of the permanent instigation of violence and hatred by U.S. politicians and extremist anti-Cuban groups.