Cuba remembered terrorist attack on La Coubre merchant ship

Havana, Mar 4 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero today recalled the 63rd anniversary of the explosion of the French merchant ship La Coubre, due to a terrorist attack in which hundreds of Cubans were killed.

‘Cuba does not forget that March 4, 1960,’ the head of Government wrote in Twitter and added that the brutal sabotage was one of the many actions orchestrated by the United States against the island.

Marrero also recalled that at the funeral honors of the victims on March 5, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, for the first time pronounced the slogan that since that day has accompanied the Cuban revolutionary process: ‘Homeland or Death’.

Around 15:00 local time on March 4, a powerful blast shook Havana and immediately the sound of ambulance and police sirens filled the city.

The French ship La Coubre had brought to Havana armaments and ammunition. A first strong detonation during the unloading process left the holds roofless, damaged the stern of the ship and left many people dead and wounded.

A second explosion took place while dock workers, police, firemen, soldiers and neighbors were helping those affected, killing almost 100 people and injuring more than 200.

Cuba has accused the United States Government of being the perpetrator of the crime, although so far ‘there is no evidence to prove such a logical presumption, given the hostility of the northern neighbor towards the Cuban revolutionary process’, historian Pedro Pablo Rodriguez pointed out.

However, it is significant that US authorities have never allowed access to the documentation on the matter kept in their archives and state that they have to wait 150 years to do so.

Other elements, revealed by Colombian journalist, documentary filmmaker and writer Hernando Calvo Ospina in his book “El enigma de La Coubre”, suggest that the sabotage had the complicity of different institutions in France and Belgium.