Georgetown: Forty-five years have passed since two bombs detonated on Cuban Airline Flight 455, causing it to crash into the sea off the coast of Barbados, killing all 73 passengers and crew. Eleven of the victims were Guyanese.
The embassy of Guyana in Havana, Cuba, in the annual commemoration of the October 6 plane crash, held special event in the country’s capital.
Minister of Foreign and International Cooperation, Hugh Hilton Todd, represented and delivered remarks on behalf of President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, at the commemorative ceremony for the 45th anniversary of the Cubana Air Disaster, held on Wednesday at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus.
In honor of the lives lost on October 6, 1976, Minister Todd also took part in the wreath-laying exercise, alongside His Excellency, Narciso Reinaldo Amador Socorro, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Guyana, Charles Ramson, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, and Captain Gerald Gouveia, Honorary Consul of Barbados to Guyana.
President of the Guyana Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM), Halim Khan, in the aftermath of the ceremony at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen campus, explained that the best way to honour the memories of the victims of the Cubana Air Disaster is to continue to gear foreign policy to promote peace among peoples in every part of the world.
Khan said that 45 years ago a Douglas DC-8 aircraft trundled down the runway at Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados and took off, climbing into a blue Caribbean sky.
“As Flight 455 reached 18,000 feet, a bomb went off under an empty seat. The plane’s ascent slowed and it began to bank dangerously. Eight minutes later a second bomb went off in the toilet at the back of the plane and the plane plunged into the ocean. Everyone on board perished,” Khan said.
The 73 people on board perished included a girl, aged nine.
The GCSM President said Luis Posada Carriles, identified as a CIA-backed anti-Castro movement terrorist, was never convicted or made to face any sanctions; living out his old age somewhere in the US.
“This was confirmed by the CIA in 2005. The agency had concrete advance intelligence as early as June 1976 of plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups in Miami to bomb the airline,” Khan said.
Ambassador of Cuba, Narciso Reinaldo Amador Socorro, in his address, said October 6 has been adopted in Cuba as the day of ‘Victims of State Terrorism’ in perpetual remembrance of those killed because of terrorist acts against Cuba.
“The sabotage of Cubana de Aviacion aircraft on October 6, 1976, best known as: ‘The Crime of Barbados’ has left an unforgettable sorrow in the hearts of Guyanese and Cuban people. For that reason we are gathered together in the rejection of terrorism, the highest expression of irrational hatred,” the Cuban envoy said.
The ambassador said that history has shown that unity, solidarity and cooperation amongst peoples are the best way to overcome aggression and adversaries.
“Nothing will stop our two countries to continue working together for peace, happiness and sustainable prosperity of our two nations,” the Cuban envoy said.
The Cubana Air Disaster held eleven Guyanese passengers as victims, five of whom were travelling to Cuba to study medicine. The Guyanese who perished included Margaret Bradshaw, Sabrina Harrypaul, 9; Seshnarine Kumar 18; Ann Nelson, 18; Eric Norton, 18; Raymond Persaud, Gordon M. Sobha, Rawle Thomas, 18, Rita Thomas, Violet Thomas and Jacqueline Williams, 19.
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