The Cuban delegation at the United Nations denounced the manipulation of terrorism to turn it into a political instrument against any country and rejected the attacks perpetrated by the United States on Cuba.

United Nations.- Addressing the UN General Assembly on Monday, Cuban First Deputy Foreign Minister Gerardo Peñalver, stated that these acts cannot be tolerated with impunity and called on the international community and the United Nations to reject them.

Cuba has suffered for decades the consequences of terrorist actions, with a toll on the lives of 3,478 persons and 2,099 other citizens mutilated for life, the permanent representative said during the debate dedicated to Measures to eliminate that scourge in the world.

“Forty-five years after the mid-flight explosion of a Cubana de Aviación airplane off the coast of Barbados, which killed 73 people, the Cubans are outraged that justice has still not been done for the victims of this terrible crime,” Peñalver denounced.

The diplomat reminded the recent Molotov cocktail attack on Havana’s Embassy in Washington on September 24, the second such violent event on the diplomatic mission in three years.

In April 2020, an individual opened fire with a rifle at the Embassy’s building, endangering the lives of ten diplomats there, the first deputy foreign minister added.

Three years later, the perpetrator is still awaiting trial, and the US Government refuses to describe it as an act of terrorism, he pointed out.

Peñalver condemned another similar attack on the Cuban Embassy in Paris in July 2021, which resulted in the brutal campaign of incitement to hatred, violence, and hostile acts unleashed with total impunity on social media and digital platforms from the territory of the United States.

Cuba considers that the practice of supporting subversive acts for a “regime change” violates the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, he stated. (PL)