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Barlovento:
The Massacre of Cuban-Chinese
By Agustin Blazquez and Jaums Sutton © 2003
ABIP
Barlovento is a marina development that flourished
before 1959 near Jaimanita Beach northwest of
Havana.
When Castro was in need of U.S. dollars to prop-up
his regime he converted that area into "Hemingway
Marina" which became popular among rich and
famous foreigners, including yachting Americans,
all of whom find dubious amusements and business
deals while spending the coveted U.S. dollars,
to this day, oblivious that the blood of innocent
civilians taint the waters.
This is the area where U.S. fugitive Robert Vesco
lived in luxury on his stolen U.S. dollars until
he fell out of favor with Castro (perhaps because
he ran out of dollars). He was put in jail under
the pretext of some shady pharmaceutical deals
with a visiting relative of the late president
Richard Nixon who worked for one the powerful
pharmaceutical companies in the U.S.
But today, Armando Lago, a Ph. D. in Economics
from Harvard University, continues working on
his book "CUBA: The Human Cost of Social
Revolutions. The Black Book of Cuban Communism,"
documenting the deaths caused by Castro's regime
from 1959 to the present. According to Dr. Lago's
ongoing research, the total currently ranges between
90,827 and 102,722 deaths (much higher than the
3,000 attributed to Chile's Augusto Pinochet).
Every one of the deaths Castro has caused deserves
to be documented and presented to the world for
its review. But, unfortunately, very few are known
to the American public because of the bias and
censorship of the U.S. media and academia.
One of the individual incidents has been known
only to the Cuban exile community and due to the
lack of documentation seemed to be at risk of
becoming mere folklore. Dr. Alberto Fibla in his
1996 book in Spanish "Barbarie" (Barbarism)
describes this incident on page 36 for the first
time. Dr. Fibla, was in prison in Cuba from 1962
to 1988 for opposing Castro's tyranny.
But, in the course of his exhaustive research,
Dr. Lago finally uncovered the documentation of
that incident. It was thanks to former political
prisoner Ela Castro. When about to be released
from prison a fellow inmate gave her a copy of
the court sentencing documents of the survivors
for her to smuggle out. Ela Castro was then able
to smuggle the document out of Cuba when she came
to exile in the U.S.
As Dr. Lago worked on a chapter of his book that
deals with the crimes perpetrated by Castro's
regime against unarmed civilians who attempt to
escape Cuba in boats or makeshift rafts, he decided
that now that the credentials are available the
story should be told immediately, rather than
wait for the release of his book. So he shared
the details of the story with me, complete with
the names of the victims.
So now, for the first time, the complete story.
On January 15, 1962, the Cuban Coast Guard, following
Castro's standing orders, massacred a group of
29 civilians whose terrible crime, so damaging
to Castro's revolution, was wanting to leave Cuba
for the U.S. Among them were eight Cuban-Chinese
from the town of Bauta and the neighborhood of
Marianao, near that rich-man's-paradise renamed
"Hemingway Marina."
On that winter night, the group went aboard the
31-foot rented boat "Pretexto" (Pretext)
anchored at the marina.
But Castro's Gestapo-type State Security (SS)
was already very well prepared and because of
its pervasive web of informants, knew of their
plans well in advance and had time to organize
a dramatic ambush, rather than peacefully apprehending
the participants. Castro's rule-by-fear depends
on bloody spectacles as a deterrent lesson to
repress others.
As the boat began to head out of the marina in
Channel No. 1, the main deep-water channel, it
was abruptly halted by a heavy steel chain that
had been strung across the channel.
The refugees looked ahead and saw a Cuban Navy
vessel anchored at the entrance of the channel
that opened fire on them with 30-caliber machine
guns. And from one side, more machine gun fire
began, completing a multisided attack.
Since the "Pretexto" was unarmed, it
was unable to defend itself.
The result of this cowardly and unjustified attack
against 29 unarmed civilians was five dead, including
three Cuban-Chinese.
According to the court documents Dr. Lago received,
the 24 survivors of this crime were sentenced
to 20 years in prison in the Judicial Docket (Causa)
No. 60 of 1962 by the Revolutionary Tribunal of
La Cabana Fortress. This episode came to be known
in the Cuban-exile community as "The Chinese
Massacre at Barlovento."
The names of the five assassinated by Castro's
forces can now be given; they are: Amalia-Cora
Corzo, Fernando Gil Garcia, both from the Marianao
neighborhood and Cuban-Chinese Lee Suey Chuy,
Guan Xi Lui and Yak Yim Pan, all from the town
of Bauta.
In addition to Dr. Fibla's book mention, the
second source for Dr. Lago's report is the Revolutionary
Tribunal of the Revolutionary District of Havana;
the Judge was Vicente Alvarez Crespo in Judicial
Docket (Causa) No. 60 of 1962, July 4, 1962, pp
1-2.
This case at Barlovento Marina - now the bloody
waters of the "Hemingway Marina" - was
not the first or the last incident in the sad
history. There are many more cases. Among the
most infamous cases are at the Canimar River in
the province of Matanzas on July 6, 1980 where
11 unarmed civilians died and the July 13, 1994
sinking of the "13 of March" tugboat
outside the waters of the Bay of Havana in which
41 unharmed civilians (men and women) lost their
lives along with 12 innocent children.
Dr. Lago, in his incoming book, will document
these and other cases. Hopefully this book will
not be ignored by the U.S. media and academia
as they did with "THE BLACK BOOK OF COMMUNISM:
Crimes Terror Repression" published in French
in 1997 and translated to English by Harvard University
Press (October, 1999). But it seems that while
the Nazi crimes are still publicized to this day,
the crimes of the communists are being systematically
ignored.
It is very revealing indeed of the U.S. media
and academia, but what can the purpose of their
avoidance of the truth of Communism be? After
Castro falls and Cuba hopefully becomes a free
and democratic country, many of those guilty in
this cover-up will have to answer.
The right to leave and return to any country
is guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights. And Cuba is a signatory of this
document. But, as usual, Castro's signature means
nothing since his regime has been systematically
violating this right and so many others since
1959.
© 2003 ABIP
Agustin Blazquez, Producer/director
of the documentaries:
COVERING CUBA, CUBA: The Pearl
of the Antilles, COVERING CUBA 2: The Next Generation
& COVERING CUBA 3: Elian presented at the
2003 Miami Latin Film Festival.
Author with Carlos Wotzkow
of the book COVERING AND DISCOVERING and translator
with Jaums Sutton of the book by Luis Grave de
Peralta Morell THE MAFIA OF HAVANA: The Cuban
Cosa Nostra.
For a preview and information
on the documentary and books click here: ABIP
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