Fidel Honors Terrorist Victims

Fidel Honors Terrorist Victims

Luis Enrique Gonzalez




Bridgetown, Dec 9 (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Fidel Castro returned to the monument to the Crime of Barbados Thursday, to pay tribute to the victims and make a new call for the terrorists responsible to be brought to justice.

Seven years ago on his second visit to Barbados, the statesman stood before the marble pyramid and recalled those who lost their lives in the criminal action supported by the United States and where one of whose masterminds, Luis Posada Carriles, remains without answering to the cause of justice.

Fidel Castro was accompanied today by Carlos Cremata, son of a stewardess, one of the 73 passengers and crew who died so violently in 1976.

The president and Cremata, director of the La Colmenita children´s theater company, went to the monument together carrying the floral offering and after placing it, the statesman embraced him, remaining at his side to share the pain of one who lost a parent and who represents all victims´ families, while tears flowed from Cremata´s eyes.

I will continue creating better works, from my heart, Cremata told reporters emotionally as he called for justice.

PRENSA LATINA

AGAINST the backdrop of a beautiful sunset reflected on the calm waters of the west coast, four heads of state paid their respects yesterday to those who died in the Cubana Airlines aircraft crash off Barbados in 1976.

One after another, St Lucia's Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony; President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana; Cuba's President Dr Fidel Castro then Prime Minister Owen Arthur, each solemnly laid a wreath at the step of the monument set up at Paynes Bay, St James, commemorating the deaths of the 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese, and five North Korean businessmen.

The high-security ten-minute ceremony was attended by many Cuban ministers, recently re-elected Prime Minister of St Vincent Dr Ralph Gonsalves and local Government ministers.

Without any speeches and very little fuss, two minutes of silence were observed as a mark of respect for the 73 victims, which was followed by the playing of the steelpan rendition of the Guyanese National Anthem and the Cuban Anthem which was sung by every Cuban in attendance.

In an eagerly anticipated keynote address at the start of the Second Cuba-CARICOM Summit at the Barbados Hilton, Castro said the feverish consumerism of the rich countries was leading to the alarming shortage of hydrocarbons, a vital source of non-renewable energy.

With proven and unproven reserves being depleted and a market price only within reach of wealthy societies, Castro said, hydrocarbons were inaccessible to the overwhelming majority of peoples in the Third World.

The Cuban president told the heads of state and government, ministers, diplomats and others assembled in the high-ceilinged Needham's Ballroom, that the colossal wastage by consumerist societies not only affected the world economy but also posed a serious threat to the environment.

"How will our countries face the damages of the next hurricane season," he asked, "and those of the next ten years, and who will help us pay for them?