Relative of one of the victims of the Barbados crime during the traditional pilgrimage that takes place every October 6 in Havana, Cuba. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.
The terror still surprises us when we look at the faces of those young people, almost children, who boarded Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, on October 6, 1976, full of joy and euphoria over the victory achieved in Caracas, Venezuela, in the Central American and Caribbean Fencing Championship. How could they commit such a terrible crime? How is so much evil possible? we ask ourselves again.
Every time we listen to the recording of the Black Box, the sole survivor of the explosion and witness to the barbarity in mid-flight, we shudder. “Stick to the water, Felo! Stick to the water!” So we wished that there were miracles and that as we looked around it was just a scene from a horror movie. But no, sometimes, as was the case, reality is scarier than the movies.
We place ourselves in the shoes of these families when it was confirmed to them that the plane on which their loved ones were traveling had unfortunately suffered a terrorist attack, and we feel their grief as our own.
Our chest tightens when we see the interview with Nancy Uranga Rumagosa’s father, who says with the humility of a good farmer: “Today, just like the first day, I always think of her, me, the woman… But what are we?” will I do? Twenty or thirty years of laying flowers…”
The sign of terror marks us when we talk to Tin Cremata and he confesses that he sows and sows love so that hate does not flourish because It was hate that took away the most important person in his life; his father, the joy of the house. When they tell us how some parents gave up on life after losing their only daughter to this crime. When we visit a friend like Raúl Rodríguez Bocalandro and see, in the largest painting in the room, the young and beautiful face of his only sister, who also died on October 6, 1976.
The feelings are overwhelming when we think of the parents who were never again able to enjoy the presence of their children, to hug them, to pamper them, to bring them into the world… When we imagine the orphanage that the days of these children that were taken away from them were, father or son eclipsed by terrorist mother.
Forgiveness refuses to arise within us because the farewell was violent and forever. Because a bride was waiting. For a life that had just been born in a woman’s womb did not see the light. Because many families waited forever with open arms for their children to return.
The Ambassador of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to Cuba, His Excellency Halim Majeed, knows this well because his brother-in-law was on the Cubana flight that terror caused to explode in mid-flight.Sasenarine Kumar.
“On October 6, 1976, the Vice Consul of Cuba in Guyana, Daniel Salas, visited my home and gave me the sad news that Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 had been blown up. He came to me because a member of my… The family was aboard that ship.
“The only thing that was recovered from his body in Barbados was his right hand, which wore a ring with the initials SK.”
His Excellency Halim Majeed recalls that there was turmoil in Guyana at the time and relations between his country and the United States became strained, from where the crime was framed and where the masterminds of the first terrorist attack in Guyana found refuge – but no justice. Western Hemisphere Aviation.
“The United States withdrew its ambassador from Guyana and we have done the same. Because the two criminals who planted the bombs on the ship were arrested in Trinidad and Tobago, but of course the illegitimate perpetrators were never brought to justice. They sought and succeeded.” found refuge in Miami and lived to old age.
Like many other victims of terrorism, this ambassador has a memory and insists that the crime of Barbados must be remembered and commemorated. For this reason, since his arrival as a diplomat in 2016, he has held a memorial ceremony every October, where there is no shortage of prayers for his families so that they find consolation and for their souls so that they achieve eternal peace.
On October 5, the tribute took place at La Casa del Alba Cultural in Havana, where a photo exhibition by Ismael Francisco, a photojournalist from , was shown Cuba debate, who preserves in the lens of his eyes and his camera shocking images of the pain of the Barbados crime on his victims. The most iconic is probably the snapshot of Fidel hugging Tin Cremata, the son of one of the fatal victims. Likewise the photo in which he caresses his father’s name on the memorial that honors the fallen there.
“’I felt my father in Fidel’s embrace,’ Tin Cremata confessed several times when referring to the first photo. The other also has a very emotional story, because on the same day, after the completion of the honoring of the heads of During the Cuba-Caricom Summit in Bridgetown in 2005, Tin stood next to the monument. He didn’t want to leave, but as night fell and he knew he couldn’t stay any longer, he stroked his father’s name written there. as if he was saying goodbye to him,” commented Ismael Francisco to those who asked him about these images at the meeting.
The commemoration ceremony was attended, among others, by members of the diplomatic corps of the Caribbean States, representatives of Minrex, the Hero of the Republic of Cuba, Fernando González, and the commander of the rebel army, Víctor Drake.
Today, injustice trembled again as it did on October 15, 1976, when our Commander-in-Chief said goodbye to the martyrs of Barbados in front of a sea of people at José Martí Revolution Square. Because today an energetic and manly people once again mourned the victims of terrorism.
Photo exhibition at La Casa del Alba Cultural in Havana to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the Barbados crime. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.
Since his arrival in Cuba in 2016 as Ambassador of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, His Excellency Halim Majeed has sponsored a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Barbados crime in which his brother-in-law Sasenarine Kumar died. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.
Act of commemoration of the crime of Barbados on October 5, 2023 at La Casa del Alba Cultural in Havana. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.
Evening at the Plaza de la Revolución in honor of the Martyrs of Barbados. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate
At the 2005 Cuba-Caricom summit in Barbados, Fidel hugs Tin Cremata, the son of one of the fatal victims of the Barbados crime. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.
Carlos Alberto Cremata (Tin), son of Carlos Cremata Trujillo, one of the crew members of the DC-8 of the Cubana de Aviación, caresses his father’s name on the monument dedicated to the Martyrs of the Crime of Barbados, in Barbados itself. Photo: Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate.
Traditional pilgrimage that takes place every October 6th in Havana, Cuba, in memory of the Martyrs of Barbados and against terrorism. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.