Anniversary of the Tugboat Massacre

CUBA: REMEMBERING THE TUGBOAT MASSACRE OFJULY 13,1994 AND THE CASTRO REGIME’S CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY


July 13, 2010. Summit, New Jersey. Among the Cuban Communist regime’s most flagrant atrocities is the Tugboat Massacre of July 13, 1994. It leaves no doubt of the Cuban leadership’s profound disregard for human life and its egregious violation of many of the fundamental rights of its citizens.

Sixteen years ago today a group of around seventy family members and friends boarded the tugboat “13 de marzo” in the middle of the night planning to escape the island. The group had been infiltrated, so three tugboats waiting in the dark started a chase. They soon began to spray the fleeing boat with high-pressure water jets, ripping children from their parents’ arms and sweeping some passengers off to sea. Finally, one rammed the “13 de marzo” and sank it. Passengers who had taken refuge in the cargo hold were pinned down and drowned. The pursuing tugboats then circled around survivors in the water trying to drown them. The attack only stopped when a merchant ship with a Greek flag approached Havana Harbor. Cuban Navy ships then picked up survivors, but 37 had died, including 11 children. The international outcry prompted the government to promise an investigation. Instead it put survivors and relatives of the dead under surveillance, dismissed many from their jobs and systematically harassed them. Later, it awarded the head of the operation, tugboat pilot Jesús González Machín, a "Hero of the Cuban Revolution" medal. Requests by international organizations for information and redress were all disregarded. (See a detailed account at www.CubaArchive.org, in the section “Case Profiles.”)

This tragedy remains largely ignored by world media, together with the fact that theCastro regime has for decades systematically murdered civilians for trying to escape their country. Hundreds of cases are documented, but many more are thought to have been killed by state authorities for attempting to escape by sea, seeking asylum in foreign embassies, or trying to cross into the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo, which remains sealed off by barbed wire and mines, Cuban border guards ready to shoot to kill. Cuba's Penal Code punishes attempts to leave the national territory without government permission with up to twenty years in prison or death. Thousands have served prison for these so-called crimes and today a number remain serving very long sentences for attempting to escape the country.

The Tugboat massacre makes for a small fraction of the total victims of the Cuban Communist regime. Cuba Archive has documented almost 8,000 deaths and disappearances of a political nature, yet many more are feared. See case details for all documented victims at www.CubaArchive.org - go to database. See an account of the Canimar River Massacre and a Summary of Documented Victims of Exit Attempts from Cuba at www.CubaArchive.org - go to Research Reports.

World governments, international organizations, and all people of goodwill should hold the Cuban government accountable for its crimes against humanity and demand respect for the fundamental rights of Cuba’s citizens to life, safety, and the right to leave their country at will.



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