Center for International Policy

May 4, 2007

Cuba: Plane hijacking leaves hostage dead
By Zainab Osman
SomaliNet

Fugitives tried to hijack a plane bound for the United States on Thursday and killed an officer they took hostage during the failed attempt, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry blamed U.S. policies that the government says encourage Cubans to immigrate to the United States and also said it was a result of Washington's tolerance of violence against Cuba.

The incident began before dawn when the fugitives commandeered a regular city bus near the airport and forced it to drive inside and onto the tarmac of terminal 2, which services charter flights between the Cuban capital and the United States. The exact destination of the plane in the United States not known, but most charter flights out of Terminal 2 fly to Miami.

Army Lt. Col. Victor Ibo Acuna Velazquez was killed aboard the plane but there were no crew members or passengers on board at the time, the ministry statement said. The other passengers on the commandeered bus were unharmed and the two fugitive soldiers were arrested.

The incident comes amid an ongoing political campaign by Havana accusing the U.S. government of protecting its archenemy, Luis Posada Carriles. Cuba alleges the 79-year-old Cuban militant of involvement in a deadly airline bombing three decades ago and a string of Havana hotel bombings in the late 1990s.

Hundreds of thousands of people marching in Havana on Tuesday to mark May Day protested against the recent release from U.S. custody of Posada Carriles.

Caridad Carbonel, who has lived in the shadow of Havana's airport for 34 years, said she was awakened by gunfire and saw a vehicle roll onto the tarmac through a side checkpoint.

"Last night, there was a terrible shootout," the 68-year-old said, adding that she saw ambulances swarm the area and had heard about the death of an officer several hours before Cuba's government confirmed it Thursday evening.

The two arrested were among three who escaped with automatic rifles from base on Sunday after killing a fellow soldier and wounding another. The statement said the third soldier who fled was captured earlier, but it did not say when.

There had been a massive manhunt under way for the three. The Defense Ministry over the weekend distributed wanted circulars around Havana, describing the fugitives as armed and dangerous and saying they were sought for abandoning their posts. Some circulars were displayed in public places, including post offices.

The men, all from the eastern province of Camaguey, were identified as Leandro Cerezo Sirut and Alain Forbus Lameru, both 19, and Yoan Torres Martinez, 21. It was not immediately clear which two were involved in the attempted hijacking. --Pakistan Times