On October 6, 1976, a Cubana de Aviacion Douglas DC-8 aircraft was destroyed by two explosive charges a few minutes after taking off from the airport in Bridgetown, Barbados.

An estimated 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese, and five Koreans, including 24 members of the Cuban junior fencing team, who were returning after competing at the 4th Central American and Caribbean Championships of that sport held in Caracas, Venezuela, died in that explosion.

Cuban expert Julio Lara Alonso exposed that the second explosion occurred in the rear lavatory of the passenger cabin, causing the aircraft to go down.

The pilots managed to control the burning plane long enough to report the emergency before impacting into the sea.

Investigations established that the masterminds were Cuban-born terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch Avila, who, in June of that year, had founded the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) in the Dominican Republic to carry out more than 20 terrorist acts against Cuban diplomatic missions.

Declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents reveal that the agency had been aware of the plans for the attack at least four months in advance.

The Caribbean nation has denounced this crime as part of a systematic aggression against the island spanning more than 60 years, resulting in 3,478 deaths and thousands of injuries due to hostile actions, sabotage, and terrorist acts.

jdt/iff/kmg/mks