BY ERNIE MAILHOT
MIAMI - On September 4 the Cuban people were confronted with a significant escalation of terrorist bombings, with four blasts in Havana. One claimed the life of Fabio Di Celmo.

Di Celmo, an Italian who resided in Canada, was killed by shrapnel from a bomb that went off in the lobby of the Copacabana Hotel at midday. Within an hour, two more bombings took place at two nearby hotels, the Tritón and Chateau Miramar. Later that night slight injuries were reported as another device exploded at La Bodeguita del Medio, a famous Havana restaurant popular with tourists.

These latest bombings are part of a terror campaign that began on April 13 with an early morning bombing near a disco in the Meliá-Cohiba Hotel in Havana. After this first bombing and prior to the September 4 attacks, there were at least four other explosions in hotels in Havana and the Varadero resort area, which caused property damage and some minor injuries. A second unexploded bomb was found in the Meliá-Cohiba Hotel, the site of the first blast.

On September 10 Cuban authorities announced that a man carrying a Salvadoran passport had been arrested and confessed to the most recent bombings, as well as two in July. A statement by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior said that the man, identified as Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, is a U.S.-trained Salvadoran army veteran who was paid $4,500 for each bombing. It said the operation was linked to the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), a counterrevolutionary group based in Miami. CANF leaders denied this charge.

A September 5 statement by the Ministry of the Interior, which was published in the Cuban daily Granma, pointed out, "Since the first of these actions the Cuban government has, on the basis of well-founded information, categorically affirmed before national and world public opinion that these repugnant acts were planned, financed, and organized in the United States.

"For decades U.S. authorities have encouraged, covered up, and tolerated terrorist activity against Cuba," the statement continued. "These acts have never been investigated with necessary rigor, despite the provision, through various channels, of information on the plans of and concrete actions carried out by murderers who enjoy complete liberty and impunity in U.S. territory...

"Our people confront these cowardly, brutal attacks with firmness, serenity, intelligence, and full confidence of victory."

U.S. State Department spokesman James Foley asserted that Washington had no knowledge of who was behind the bombings, and said the Cuban government had not presented "substantive information or evidence to support that contention" that U.S.-based forces were involved.

Echoing the State Department line, the big-business press has repeatedly suggested that the bombings are the work of forces in Cuba. For example, a September 5 article the Miami Herald cited an unnamed "foreigner living in Havana" as saying, "With each bombing the argument grows that this must be the work of insiders, who know how to slip in and out of hotels."

An attack on the Cuban economy
Oscar Ochotorena, an activist in the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community (ATC) in Miami, explained that he thought there were different reasons for the bombings. "But number one," he said, "this is an attack on the Cuban economy. It is an attempt to hurt tourism, which is so important to Cuba and which is advancing."

Tourism is one of the most important sources of hard currency for Cuba. According to the Miami Herald the 1.2 million visitors expected in Cuba this year could bring in $1.75 billion in gross income.

Opposition to the bombing campaign is so overwhelming in Cuba that even the so-called dissident groups, many of whom receive money from U.S. government agencies, have come out against them. One such group, the misnamed Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, called the bombings "blind, cruel and irresponsible."

In the Miami Cuban-American community very few groups have come out publicly in support of the bombing campaign. Among those that have are Alpha 66, an avowed terrorist group, and the Cuban American National Foundation. An Associated Press dispatch on September 4 stated, "The militant Cuban exile group Alpha 66 in Miami has said that it was not responsible for the blasts, but that it was in contact with `clandestine cells' inside Cuba that were responsible."

Ninoska Pérez, a representative of the CANF who hosts a local Spanish-language radio show, has said that while deploring violence, the foundation supports what she described as all forms of resistance by the Cuban people.

Protest called in Miami
While individual rightists in Miami have supported the bombings, discussions in workplaces and on the streets point to the big majority of Cuban-Americans opposing the terrorist acts.

At a meeting of about 50 members of the ATC a few days after the September 4 blasts, Walfrido Moreno, president of the ATC, got a rousing standing ovation when he denounced the U.S. government and counterrevolutionaries in Miami and called for everyone to come out for a protest of the bombings later in the week.

A press statement put out by the Antonio Maceo Brigade, a group that supports the Cuban revolution, stated, "The Antonio Maceo Brigade energetically condemns the criminal campaign of terrorist bombings in Cuba against the Cuban people by their traditional enemies."

After pointing to the right-wing elements as being behind the blasts the statement went on, "This can occur and continue to occur only as long as the U.S. government maintains its policies of aggression and genocide against the Cuban people."

A statement put out by the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba referred to rightist bombings in Miami last year against travel agencies that deal with Cuba and against the Centro Vasco restaurant where Cuban singer Rosita Fornes was to perform.

The coalition explained, "While right-wing elements in Miami and elsewhere have a history of involvement in such acts the ultimate responsibility for this terrorism is the U.S. government. Whether directly organizing these attacks or not, Washington's refusal to seriously investigate both the bombings in Miami and the links to those in Cuba gives the green light to violent rightist organizations.

"Furthermore, evidence now being investigated by an international commission from 74 countries indicates that Washington is using biological attacks against Cuban agriculture. Among the proofs are photos showing a U.S. plane spraying a substance over an area of Cuba where a deadly insect infestation of crops later developed. Reminiscent of previous denials by Washington before the Bay of Pigs invasion and other U.S. sponsored terrorism the authorities here say the plane was spraying smoke to alert a nearby plane of its position."

The Miami coalition along with the Antonio Maceo Brigade and the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community called for a picket line to protest the bombings to be held outside the offices of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on September 16.  
 
 
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