‘We Shall Never Forget Them’—says President Granger

Oct 07, 2016 News

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…As Guyana Commemorates 40th Anniversary of the Cubana Air Disaster
Guyana observed yet another anniversary of the 1976 bombing of the Cubana 455 aircraft

that left 73 persons dead, 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and five North Koreans. The Guyanese who died were students going to Cuba to study medicine and engineering. Others were diplomats.
This commemorative ceremony was held at the Cubana Air Disaster Monument, located at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus, East Coast Demerara.
Yesterday, President David Granger said, “The observance of the 40th anniversary of the Cubana terrorist attack takes place in the year that Guyana celebrates its 50th anniversary of its political independence.
“We recall that our national independence was won by the sacrifice of those who were prepared to give their lives for the principles for which they stood. Let it not be that the blood of the victims of this terrorist attack was shed in vain.
“Guyana abhors the crime of international terrorism, whenever and wherever it occurs. Guyana honours the memory of the martyrs of October 6, 1976. We will never forget them”.
Among the attendees at the Commemorative Ceremony was Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marchante, Cuba’s Ambassador to Guyana, who stated while addressing the ceremony, “This monument is a remembrance…which also constitutes encouragement in the battle that together we fight against this scourge.
“On this day, our belief in the strength of patriotism and internationalism is reaffirmed as bastions of the struggle of honest and worthy men of this world and as a guarantee of a victorious future.”

“Our crew, athletes and compatriots cowardly killed on that day will live forever in the hearts of our people and will continue to be the inspiration in the battle against terrorism and for a more revolutionary, more internationalist and socialist homeland.
“Family members and fellow countrymen of the Guyanese and North Korean brothers cruelly killed, you must know that they will also remain forever in our fervent memory; and by reminding us that terrorism has no borders, they will be a spur in our common struggle,” Ambassador Gonzalez said.
Also present were Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan, and Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland, Members of the National Assembly, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Captain Gerry Gouveia, Barbados Consul to Guyana, Mayor of Georgetown, Patricia Chase-Green, Cuban Officials and relatives of the deceased.
The records show that on October 6, 1976 the Cubana Airways Flight CU – 455 was scheduled to fly a route from Guyana to Trinidad, Trinidad to Barbados, Barbados to Jamaica, and finally from Kingston, Jamaica to Havana, Cuba.
At 13:24h, on that fateful Wednesday after the plane took off from the Barbados Seawell International Airport (now Grantley Adams Airport) a bomb located in the aircraft’s rear lavatory exploded at an altitude of 18,000 feet, nine minutes after takeoff.
The Cubana 455 started descending rapidly, as the pilot tried unsuccessfully to control and return the plane to Seawell Airport. Within minutes a second bomb exploded, which caused the plane to crash. The pilot appeared to have turned the plane away from crashing unto a beach, saving many lives. The plane crashed about eight kilometers from the airport.
This was the first act of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere against civilian aviation. It is remembered as a cowardly act of terror perpetrated on Cuba, North Korea and Guyana.
The Guyanese who died were Jacqueline Williams. 19, a student; Ann Nelson, 18, a student; Rawle Thomas, 18, a student; Raymond Persaud; Seshnarine Kumar, 18, a student; Sabrina Harrypaul, 9; Margaret Bradshaw – the wife of a Guyanese diplomat; Rita Thomas, Violet Thomas, Harold Norton, and Gordon M. Sobha – an Economist.
Four men, Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Hernan Ricardo Lozano and Freddy Lugo— were arrested in connection with the bombing. Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano were sentenced to 20-year prison terms following a trial in Venezuela.
They had joined the flight in Trinidad; they then left the bombs on the plane before disembarking in Barbados. Ricardo confessed to Barbadian and Trinidad officials who were investigating the crime that he and Lugo bombed the plane and that they worked for Luis Posada Carriles.
The third man, Orlando Bosch was acquitted because of technical defects in the prosecution evidence, and lived in Miami, Florida until he died on April 27, 2011; and Luis Posada Carriles was held for eight years while awaiting a final sentence, but eventually fled Venezuela.
He later entered the United States, where he was held on charges of entering the country illegally but released on April 19, 2007. Carriles is a Cuban exile militant and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent.
He is considered a terrorist by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Government of Cuba, among others. He was a long-time member of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, described by the FBI as “an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization”.

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