The Cubana Air Disaster

Oct 07, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Yesterday, as has been the case over the years, Guyana once again paused to pay homage to the eleven young Guyanese who perished in the Cubana Air Disaster of October 6, 1976, one of the darkest days in our nation’s history.

Education Minister Sonia Parag, joined by government officials and relatives of the deceased, laid wreaths at the monument within the University of Guyana compound, a site that stands as a solemn reminder of lives cut short and dreams destroyed. Forty-nine years ago, eleven of our compatriots: bright young men and women, many on Cuban government scholarships were among seventy-three souls who died when Cuban Airline Flight CU455 exploded in mid-air off the coast of Barbados. The DC-8 aircraft had departed Guyana for Trinidad and Barbados before continuing to Havana. Minutes after take-off from the Seawell International Airport (now Grantley Adams), two bombs ripped through the plane’s fuselage.

Captain Wilfredo Pérez, fighting to save his passengers, radioed the control tower and attempted to return. But before he could, a second explosion sent the aircraft plunging into the sea. His last act of heroism was to steer the plane away from the crowded beach, sparing hundreds more lives. The victims included 57 Cubans, five Koreans, and 11 Guyanese — six of whom were students bound for Cuba to study medicine and engineering. The loss was devastating. Streets in Georgetown filled with grief as the news spread. Families wept openly. Then-President Forbes Burnham, his voice heavy with sorrow, called on the nation to pray and to never forget.

It was, without question, the first act of terrorism on an aircraft in the Caribbean, a crime that shattered families, violated nations, and exposed the cruelty of political extremism. In time, investigations confirmed what Presidents Burnham and Fidel Castro had suspected: that the bombing was the work of CIA-linked anti-Castro exiles working in concert with elements of the Venezuelan secret police. In 2005, the CIA itself admitted it had advance knowledge of plans to target a Cuban aircraft, but never warned Havana. The Cubana bombing was, therefore, not merely an assault on Cuba or Guyana, but a direct attack on the innocent an unforgivable act of terrorism that stained the conscience of the hemisphere.

In 1976, terrorism was a shocking, isolated horror. Today, nearly half a century later, we live in a world where violence, extremism, and conflict have multiplied beyond imagination. From wars raging across Europe and the Middle East, to political assassinations, cyber-attacks, and the silent terror of organised crime and hate movements the world has become even more fragile and divided.

The Cubana Air Disaster was meant to send a message of fear. But nearly five decades later, it must send us another message— one of resolve. So as we remember: Margaret Bradshaw, Sabrina Harrypaul, Seshnarine Kumar, Ann Nelson, Eric Norton, Raymond Persaud, Gordon Sobha, Rawle Thomas, Rita Thomas, Violet Thomas, and Jacqueline Williams we must go beyond remembrance. We must act. Every Guyanese, in honouring the fallen, must also renew their personal pledge to make this world safer, to speak out against hate, to reject extremism in every form, and to defend peace, tolerance, and truth wherever they are threatened. Terrorism, corruption, and injustice thrive when good people stay silent.

We cannot stop every act of violence across the globe, but we can shape the character of our own nation one built on compassion, vigilance and unity. Let the Cubana tragedy forever remind us of what happens when ideology eclipses humanity. Let it strengthen our national and moral will to ensure that such barbarity never happens again, not in the Caribbean, not anywhere.

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The Cubana Air Disaster

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