Barbados crime: 45 years later the pain continues
- Written by ACN
- Published in Cuba
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Forty-five years have passed since that tragic event. Today we still remember with deep sorrow October 6, 1976, a day of mourning for Cuba due to the horrendous Crime of Barbados, where 73 people died on board a Cubana de Aviación aircraft.
On that day, the lives of each one of the victims were taken away in the cruelest way, and it hurts very much to know that the intellectual authors of that vile sabotage were never tried.
The terrible fact had as ringleaders Cuban-born terrorists Luis Posada Carriles (1928-2018) and Orlando Bosch Ávila (1926-2011), employees of the U.S. empire, who were never brought to justice.
The investigative commission and the Cuban expert Julio Lara Alonso proved to the point of exhaustion that the aircraft, a US-made Douglas DC-8, fell into the sea as a result of two explosions, the second of them in the rear bathroom of the passenger cabin, which caused the downing of the aircraft.
As a consequence of this terrorist act, 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and five Koreans lost their lives, and October 6 was proclaimed the Day of the Victims of Terrorism.
Among the passengers killed in the abominable attack were 24 members of the island's youth fencing team, who competed and won all the titles in the IV Central American and Caribbean Fencing Championship.
The Cuban people's constant and systematic demand for justice is a battle we must never tire of, Ileana Alfonso, daughter of Demetrio Alfonso, one of the victims of the Crime of Barbados, once told ACN.
“The best way to pay tribute to them is to remember the athletes and crew members, so that they remain a reference for current and future generations,” she held.
Cuba sees every year the traditional pilgrimage of relatives of the victims, fencers and the population in general to the Christopher Columbus Cemetery. Furthermore, athletes and coaches at the Cerro Pelado High Performance Athletes Training School in Havana commemorate the date every year to repudiate the vile murder.
The sad event is also remembered in other nations such as Venezuela, where the Cuban fencing delegation left the Maiquetía Airport undefeated, loaded with triumphs, gold medals and dreams, all cut short by the hatred of savage and unscrupulous people.
Those outstanding athletes will forever be part of the rich history of the Cuban sports movement, which counts in that discipline with illustrious world-class athletes such as Ramon Fonst, Rolando Tucker, Elvis Gregory or Zuleidis Ortiz, just to mention a few names.
For the current generation that makes up the national fencing team, being better people and athletes, as well as following the example of those who preceded them, will be the way to pay tribute to them in order to make their legacy last.
