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La CouvreThe munitions laden French ship La
Couvre exploded in Havana harbor on March 4, 1960. Cuba has ever since
blamed US intelligence services. In recent years, suspicions of CIA
invovlement have been strenghtened by the emergence of several archival
sources that are classified for long periods of time, including 150 years
in the case of the French shipping company files. See
CIA attack on La Coubre files restricted for 150 years 3/10/2011 Granma.
Two mysterious explosions killed over 100 people in Havana harbour and wounded over 400, many of them dockworkers most of whom would likely have been Abakwa. This aspect of the story is touched on in an interview with a ranking Abakwa official, Gerardo Pazos del Cristo “El Chino” (1925-2002), Mokóngo de Kamaroró Efó. Fidel Castro launched the phrase
"Patria o muerte" in a speech given when the victims of La Couvre were
being comemorated. |
Sixty-One Years After the La Coubre Attack: A Date To Recall What Imperialism is
Capable Of 3/6/2021 Orinoco Tribune: Fidel Castro on March 5, 1960, at the
memorial service for La Couvre: "“We believe not only that we will know how to
resist any aggression, but that we will know how to overcome any aggression, and
that again we would have no other choices than those with which we began the
revolutionary struggle: of freedom or death. Only that freedom now means
something else: freedom means homeland. And our choices now would be homeland or
death!”
La disyuntiva nuestra siempre será patria o muerte 2/18/2021 Granma: "Fragmentos
del discurso pronunciado por el Comandante en Jefe, Fidel Castro Ruz, el 5 de
marzo de 1960, en las honras fúnebres de las víctimas de la explosión del barco
La Coubre, acto terrorista perpetrado por Estados Unidos contra nuestro país."
CIA attack on La Coubre files restricted for 150 years 3/10/2011 Granma: "With
the aim of conserving French maritime resources, this foundation, the
Association French Lines, manages a historical research service for a number of
shipping enterprises, in its headquarters located on Lucien Corbeaux Street in
the port city of Le Havre. Of the 30,000-plus files in the foundation’s
archives, 79 contain references to La Coubre. One, numbered 22091, placed in the
collection in 1997, has the following description: "La Coubre. Explosion in
Havana, repairs, photographs, press articles, list of the missing persons,
report to the executive committee, insurance terms, correspondence." The content
of this file would seem to be of greatest interest, given its information on
details of the act of terrorism in Havana that have never been made public. It
came from the Legal Office of the defunct CGT and is marked "Classified," with
the surprising prohibition "PUBLICATION RESTRICTED 150 YEARS.""
The terrorist attack on the La Coubre: 50 years later, Washington remains silent 3/3/2010 Granma: "This
confirms that the country whose propaganda apparatus is constantly generating
bursts of slander against Cuba has not handed over, in a half a century, one
single document about the tragedy that cost the lives of around 100 human
beings, exactly 50 years ago, on March 4."
THE MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION OF LA COUBRE - Washington maintains strict silence over
the sabotage of the French boat 3/16/2006 Granma: "Moreover, the shipping
company hired to transport the arms to Cuba contracted U.S. divers to inspect La
Coubre before it embarked. The Cuban authorities did not receive official hull
inspection reports from the divers or from the nautical company. All the
information linked to the U.S. government, such as the possible implication of
the photographer and the reports of the U.S. divers were strictly silenced.
Proof of that is the blank existing in the Department of State book in which
official communications between the U.S. government and its diplomatic mission
in Havana are compiled. There was an interruption in the traffic of messages
between February 18 and March 12, 1960."
Testimonio de Gerardo Pazos del Cristo “El Chino”
(1925-2002)
Mokóngo de Kamaroró Efó
Entrevistas por Andy Petit
"En 1962, poco después de la crisis de Octubre, la policía llamó una
reunión de todos los juegos de La Habana en el Malecón, esquina Blanco, en
el barrio de Colón. Yo fui a esa reunión, y la policía pidió que no
funcionara el Abakuá hasta el año ‘70 por problema de la zafra. Entonces
nosotros dijimos que todos los años había zafra, y los hombres Abakuá
seguian funcionando, que eso no afectaba a la zafra, que la fiesta de
nosotros eran los sábados y los domingos. La junta era dirigido por el
teniente Peña. Entonces saltó otro teniente, que a poco tiempo después
conocimos que se fue de la Revolución para los EE.UU., y él dijó que
dentro de veinte años ellos aspiraba a que desaparecería el Abakuá.[1] Yo
le dije “Teniente, a usted lo engañaron. Mire, yo tengo más de 40 años, y
estos ekobios que son más jóvenes que yo van a vivir más de 20 años y yo
voy a vivir más de 20 años. El Abakuá planta hasta arriba de una palma y
el Abakuá se mantenía.” Entonces me habló de que ellos tenia comités en
cada cuadra, pero yo manifesté que en la Biblia Dios señaló el Judas como
traidor, y nosotros conocíamos a todos los traidores de la religión y que
el Abakuá plantaría aunque sea arriba de una azotea. Estaba allí Horacio
L’lastra y muchas otras plazas que están vivos. En esa junta yo le
manifesté que “Cuando la crisis de octubre habían muchos que pertenecían
al gobierno que tenían grados que estuvieron escondido abajo de la cama, y
yo, como obrero portuario, cubano y Abakuá, estaba trabajando como
estibador en un barco que tenia dinamita y armas, que si pasaba un
mosquito volaba junto con ella porque era muy peligroso. Cuando la crisis
nosotros estábamos firmes para defender el país, y no somos
revolucionarios, somos Abakuá.”[2]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Cuban publications of the period reflect the same anti-Abakuá
sentiments as “El Chino” describes here. In an article aimed to fill the
public with fear of the society and its members, framing them as
anti-social, amoral, anti-female, and murderers, the unidentified author
wrote: “No, el abakuá irá desapareciendo, como todas las supercherías en
el desarrollo del proceso revolucionario” (No, the Abakuá will disappear,
like all other frauds in the development of the revolutionary process).
“La sociedad secreta Abakuá [ñáñigos].” 1969. Revista Jurídica Militar.
(1) : 13 - 24. [quote from p. 18].
[2] Ayorinde (2011: 144) quoted Thomas, Cuba, page 1122, as saying:
“Aracelio Iglesias, the leader of the Maritime Workers Union, who was a
santero and Abakuá member.”
Ayorinde (2011: 147) wrote that during the 1991 Communist Party congress,
“exemplary practitioners of all creeds were named, including Aracelio
Iglesias, an Abakuá who was a militant in the first Cuban Communist Party.
Eusebio Leal, the official historian of Havana asked, ‘are we to deny
[party membership] to my Abakuá friends in Old Havana who still remember,
ancient and venerable, how in the name of God and in silence they unloaded
arms from the La Coubre?” She cited Partido Comunista de Cuba.
Departamento de Orientación Revolucionaria. IV Congreso del Partido
Comunista de Cuba. Discursos y documentos. La Habana: Editora Política,
1992, page 97. The La Coubre was a French ship that carried munitions from
Belguim to Cuba in 1960. It exploded in the Havana docks, killing 75
people and injuring over 300. The explosion was believed to have been the
result of U.S. sabotage.” P. note 82, page 154.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Coubre_explosion
be.findeen.com/la_coubre_explosion.html
www.cubadebate.cu/etiqueta/la-coubre
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