Remembering the lives taken July 13, 1994: May their memory be a blessing

The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense. Through this we can build, we must build, a defense against repetition. - Simon Wiesenthal 

 

  

Thirty one years ago a great crime was committed that has still not been resolved. 

In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994 thirty seven men, women, and children were killed by government agents as they sought to travel to freedom on board of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat seven miles off the Cuban coast. Eleven of these Cubans were children ranging in age from Helen Martínez Enríquez, just five months old to Mayulis Méndez Tacaronte age seventeen.

 

International human rights bodies and organizations investigated the incident. The United Nations Human Rights Commission's special rapporteur on Cuba made the following observation on October 24, 1995 in his report on the human rights situation in Cuba to the UN General Assembly:

“Although the Government maintains that the authorities bore no responsibility for what was considered to have been an accident, the Special Rapporteur received testimony from some of the survivors indicating that Government launches from the port of Havana tried to stop the 13 de Marzo with pressurized water jets and then deliberately rammed it, causing it to sink. Non-governmental sources informed the Special Rapporteur that the number of persons who died was not 32, as the Government had stated, but at least 37 and that the families have for a year now been asking for an investigation to be initiated.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in a report released on October 16, 1996 concluded that what transpired that early morning “was not an accident but rather a premeditated, intentional act” by agents of the Cuban government and held the Cuban State responsible for violating the right to life of all the people who were shipwrecked and perished as a result of the sinking of the tug "13 de Marzo", which events occurred seven miles off the Cuban coast on July 13, 1994.

Thirty one years later, the men responsible for this mass murder remain at large and protected by the Cuban state and the survivors and family members have faced persecution, harassment, death threats, and arbitrary detentions for speaking out.  

In 2009 one of these family members, Jorge Garcia, agreed to address Florida International University students at a panel organized by the Free Cuba Foundation on the fifteenth anniversary of the July 13, 1994 “13 de Marzo” tugboat massacre. Prior to the event we met and he sat down and he explained on camera what had transpired before, during and after the events of July 13, 1994.

 

Jorge Garcia is a man who has suffered a loss few can imagine.

 

In a January 1998 Nightline interview Jorge described how he learned the news. “When I asked my daughter, ‘What about Juan Mario?’ ‘Papa, he's lost.’ ‘And Joel?’ ‘Papa, he's lost.’ ‘And Ernesto?’ ‘Papa, he's lost.’ And then we knew that other members of the family were all lost, 14 in all.” His daughter, Maria Victoria Garcia, had survived but she lost her brother, Joel García Suárez age 24;  her husband, Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro age 25; and her son, Juan Mario Gutiérrez García age 10.

 

Jorge García was detained and interrogated on several occasions. His longest detention was for 15 days. His daughter, María Victoria García, was one of three of his family who survived the massacre but was still in danger:  "They tried on several occasions to kill my daughter, because she was the first to speak out and contradict the regime’s official narrative.”

Father and daughter had spoken on camera to Nightline from Havana, Cuba about the July 13, 1994 attack on the “13 de Marzo” tugboat.  A year later in 1999 they had to go into exile as political refugees fearing for their lives.

Thirty one years later the remains of the thirty seven victims have not been recovered and returned to their families.  Nor has the state provided any compensation to the survivors or the families of the dead.

On July 12, 2014 Jorge Garcia took part in a flotilla organized by the Democracy Movement ( Movimento Democracia ) that got within 12 miles of the coastline of Cuba and five miles from the spot that today still serves as a watery grave for fourteen family members including his son and grandson. This is as close as he was able get to pay his respects to his loved ones.

On Saturday, July 13, 2024 at 6:00pm at Florida International University with members of the Free Cuba Foundation, the Christian Liberation Movement, and other people of good will, I took part in a 13 minute moment of silence to protest 30 years of injustice and pray that a serious investigation finally be conducted, that the remains of the victims be returned to their families, and that the individuals responsible for this atrocity face justice in a fair trial with their rights respected in a court of law.

Today, July 13 at 6:00pm at the Main Fountain at @FIU we held a 13 minute silent vigil to mark the day 30 years ago when agents of the Cuban dictatorship sank the "13 de Marzo" tugboat killing 37 men, women and children. #Truth #Memory #Cuba pic.twitter.com/5K3mFX3zgU

— Human Rights Violations in Cuba (@freecubafndtn) July 14, 2024

We also mourned the passing of  Jorge Garcia on June 3, 2024 and that of his daughter, María Victoria García, months earlier on January 2, 2024, without obtaining justice for their murdered family members.

 

In the meanwhile let us pray for the 37 murdered 31 years ago and the eleven children who never had a chance to grow up and live full lives in freedom and that they and their loved ones may one day have justice. May their memory be a blessing.

Helen Martínez Enríquez ( 5 months)
Cindy Rodríguez Fernández (age 2)
José Carlos Nicole Anaya (3)
Angel Rene Abreu Ruiz ( age 3)
Yisel Borges Alvarez (4) 
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte (age 5)
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García (age 10) 

Yousell E. Perez Tacoronte (age 11)
Yasser Perodin Almanza (age 11)
Eliecer Suarez Plasencia ( age 12)
Mayulis Mendez Tacoronte (age 17)
Miladys Sanabria Cabrera ( age 19 )
Odalys Muñoz García (age 21)
Yuliana Enríquez Carrazana (age 22)
Yaltamira Anaya Carrasco (age 22)
Lissett María Álvarez Guerra (age 24)
José Gregorio Balmaceda Castillo (24)
Joel García Suárez (age 24)
Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro (age 25)
María Miralis Fernández Rodríguez (age 27)

Pilar Almanza Romero (age 28)
Leonardo Notario Góngora ( age 28)
Jorge Arquímides Lebrijio Flores (age 28)   
Rigoberto Feut Gonzáles (age 31)
Omar Rodriguez Suarez (age 33)
Lázaro Enrique Borges Briel (age 34)
Julia Caridad Ruiz Blanco (age 35)
Martha Caridad Tacoronte Vega (age 36)
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel ( age 39)
Martha M.Carrasco Sanabria (age 45)  
Augusto Guillermo Guerra Martínez ( age 45)
Rosa María Alcalde Puig (age 47)    
Estrella Suárez Esquivel (age 48)
Reynaldo Joaquín Marrero (age 48)       
Manuel Cayol (age 50)           
Amado Gonzáles Raices (50)
Fidelio Ramel Prieto-Hernández (51)

 

Virtual Victims of Communism Roll Call of Nations Ceremony on June 11 at 9:00am

14th Annual Roll Call of Nations Ceremony and Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom Presentation

Join the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) virtually on June 11 at 9:00 AM EDT for our Roll Call of Nations Wreath Laying Ceremony to honor the memory of the more than 100 million victims of communism, and to boldly remind the world that over 1 billion of our fellow humans are still under the yoke of this evil and inhuman ideology.

This year, we are proud to present our Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom to Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong entrepreneur and pro-democracy activist, who was a leader of Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement and is being accused and tried for his involvement in the 2019-2020 pro-democracy movement.

The brutal crushing of dissent in Hong Kong tells the world all it needs to know about the capacity of communist governments to tolerate even the smallest concessions to freedom. The bravery of Jimmy Lai and many other citizens of Hong Kong tell us the human thirst for freedom will never die.

We hope you can join us on June 11 at 9:00 AM EDT via live stream on VOC’s YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

Below is 2020's Roll Call of Nations Ceremony.

State media of the Castro regime announces "suicide" of Fidel Castro-Diaz Balart due to depression. Some questions.

Was it suicide or is something else going on?

Fidel Castro Diaz Balart with Paris Hilton and Naomi Campbell on February 27, 2015

CubaDebate, an official press outlet of the Castro regime, announced that Fidel "Castro Diaz-Balart, who had been attended by a group of doctors for several months due to a state of profound depression, committed suicide this morning." Was it really a suicide or was it a "suicide", in other words a staged suicide?

Fidel Castro Diaz Balart, age 68, was a a nuclear scientist who was also involved in the field of nanotechnology, scientific advisor to the Council of State, and was vice-president of the Castro regime's Academy of Sciences. He traveled the world promoting the Cuban revolutionary project and had been involved in trying to develop nuclear power in Cuba and some of his interviews and excerpts of his presentations can be found on social media.

In 2006 he was giving a talk in South Africa on Cuban efforts to develop nuclear power, nuclear technology for medicine and other technologies that was covered by the Associated Press. In 2013 he was on Putin's propaganda channel RT discussing the uprisings during the Arab Spring in a program titled "Fidelity to the Revolution"and pushing forth the usual official narrative. A couple of years later he was partying with Naomi Campbell and Paris Hilton at a cigar festival in  Havana on February 27, 2015.

Could the systemic social economic crisis in Cuba, the death of his father in 2016, and family tensions provoked a profound depression? Could it have been something biochemical or bipolar? Or was it even suicide?

Could this be the first casualty in the succession struggle inside the Castro clan? Does this begin to shed light on the decision in late December 2017 to change the "vote" from February 2018 to April 2018? Is there internal dissension in the ruling family?

In Communist totalitarian states like the Soviet Union, North Korea and Cuba "suicides" aren't necessarily suicides but maybe failures in positioning oneself in a new power scheme, or failing to take power, or being viewed as a threat. The same holds true for some "accidents."

Fidel Castro Diaz Balart may have been killed or it may have been another of the many suicides of regime loyalists depressed by the disaster created in Cuba by the Castro regime, or tensions within the Castro family exacerbated following the death of Fidel Castro Ruz in November of 2016.

Meanwhile for those obsessed with lives and deaths of dictators and their families, please take a moment to consider their victims. There is a  long list of Cubans executed by firing squad, extrajudicially killed, or massacred for wanting a free Cuba: Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez (2014) Harold Cepero Escalante (2012), Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (2012), Juan Wilfredo Soto (2011), Orlando Zapata Tamayo (2010),  Armando Alejandre Jr, (1996), Carlos Costa (1996), Mario Manuel de la Peña (1996), Pablo Morales (1996), Armando Hernández González, (1982), Ramón Toledo Lugo (1982), Pedro Luis Boitel Abraham (1972) Virgilio Campanería Angel (1961) ,Alberto Tapia Ruano (1961), or for wanting to flee Cuba to live in freedom: Yuriniesky Martínez Reina (2015), Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo (2003), Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla García (2003), Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac (2003), and tens of thousands more victims and martyrs of Cuban communism under the Castro dictatorship. The full scale will have to be accounted for in a post-Castro Cuba when truth commissions can work on the island to document all that has happened.

This includes the question of whether or not Fidel Castro Diaz Balart committed suicide this morning due to depression or if something else happened. One must remember that state media in a communist dictatorship is the ultimate in fake news.

Victims of Communism: 100 Million Killed and Counting

"To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

Wreath laying ceremony at Victims of Communism Monument in Washington DC

Great crimes against humanity must not be forgotten and new generations must learn what happened in order that they not be repeated. Communism in the 20th century claimed over 100 million lives and unfortunately the body count continues to rise in the 21st Century. Although communism imploded in Eastern Europe in 1989 the number of people living under it in the world today is one in five and that is a greater percentage than lived under communism before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the opening up of the archives there and elsewhere it was revealed that the crimes of communism had caused the deaths of 100 million human beings and counting where it is still being applied around the world. One cannot forget that beyond the body count there was also spiritual wreckage generated from regimes that required friends and family members to spy on each other and betray each other for the sake of the totalitarian state.

Last week on June 9th and June 10th the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for the ninth year gathered victims of communism from around the world to remember all the past victims and the ongoing crimes of communism in Washington DC. On June 9th there were two panel discussions one that focused on witness accounts of communism in Cuba and another on educating Americans about the history of communist regimes.

The panel on Cuba provided an overview of the past six decades of repression and death by the Castro regime, the current situation in Cuba under the Obama administration's new Cuba policy, and the first hand testimony of one of its victims, Sirley Ávila León, now in the United States receiving medical care for her injuries.

On June 10th there was a Roll Call of Nations Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Victims of Communism Memorial located on (Corner of Massachusetts Ave and New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC). 20 embassies participated in the wreath laying ceremony along with 30 non-governmental organizations who with flowers came together to pray and pay their respects for the 100 million plus victims of communism and those who still live under the totalitarian darkness.

Former prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet addressed the gathering at the memorial and spoke of the communist terror that still exists in Cuba today. The presentation of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom was realized there and the 2016 laureate, Paul A. Goble, gave an important talk on the ten reasons why we must remain anti-communists.

President Obama in Cuba photographed with mass murderer in the background

It is of great importance to remember the horrific crimes of communism such as what these regimes did to children;  the genocides they carried out in Africa, Asia, and Europe.  Attention needs to be paid to the communist ideas that resulted in so much horror and loss of life. For example, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who President Obama felt comfortable being photographed with the Argentine communist revolutionary's image in the background, despite Guevara's calls to mass murder in Havana, Cuba on April 16, 1967:

"Hatred as an element of the struggle; a relentless hatred of the enemy, impelling us over and beyond the natural limitations that man is heir to and transforming him into an effective, violent, selective and cold killing machine. Our soldiers must be thus; a people without hatred cannot vanquish a brutal enemy."

The failure to address the legacy of communism and its continuing threat with seriousness is without a doubt a contributing factor to the decade long decline in human rights in the world. Furthermore failing to remember the international consensus achieved in 1948 when all the countries in the world signed on to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and engaging in relativism, as President Obama did in Cuba earlier this year, reopens a debate on the universality of rights that had been settled.

Forgetting the role played by international business in strengthening totalitarian regimes has resulted in the practice being repeated in China, Vietnam and Cuba prolonging the lives of those communist regimes to the detriment of their respective peoples. Not to mention the seizure of investor assets, the arbitrary detention of investors, and the theft of trade secrets.

This is why in 2017, the hundredth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution that brought the first communist regime into power and the tenth anniversary of the Victims of Communism Monument's dedication on June 12, 2007 needs to be truthfully remembered.

Twenty years of impunity in the July 13, 1994 "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre

 Twenty years ago a great crime was committed that has still not been resolved. 

In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994 thirty seven men, women, and children were killed by government agents as they sought to travel to freedom on board of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat seven miles off the Cuban coast. Eleven of these Cubans were children ranging in age from Helen Martínez Enríquez, just five months old to Mayulis Méndez Tacaronte age seventeen.

International human rights bodies and organizations investigated the incident. The United Nations Human Rights Commission's special rapporteur on Cuba made the following observation on October 24, 1995 in his report on the human rights situation in Cuba to the UN General Assembly:

“Although the Government maintains that the authorities bore no responsibility for what was considered to have been an accident, the Special Rapporteur received testimony from some of the survivors indicating that Government launches from the port of Havana tried to stop the 13 de Marzo with pressurized water jets and then deliberately rammed it, causing it to sink. Non-governmental sources informed the Special Rapporteur that the number of persons who died was not 32, as the Government had stated, but at least 37 and that the families have for a year now been asking for an investigation to be initiated.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in a report released on October 16, 1996 concluded that what transpired that early morning “was not an accident but rather a premeditated, intentional act” by agents of the Cuban government and held the Cuban State responsible for violating the right to life of all the people who were shipwrecked and perished as a result of the sinking of the tug "13 de Marzo", which events occurred seven miles off the Cuban coast on July 13, 1994.

Twenty years later, the men responsible for the mass murder remain at large and protected by the Cuban state and the survivors and family members have faced persecution, harassment, death threats, and arbitrary detentions for speaking out.  

In 2009 one of these family members, Jorge Garcia, agreed to address Florida International University students at a panel organized by the Free Cuba Foundation on the fifteenth anniversary of the July 13, 1994 “13 de Marzo” tugboat massacre. Prior to the event we met and he sat down and he explained on camera what had transpired before, during and after the events of July 13, 1994.

Jorge Garcia is a man who has suffered a loss few can imagine.

In a January 1998 Nightline interview Jorge described how he learned the news. “When I asked my daughter, ‘What about Juan Mario?’ ‘Papa, he's lost.’ ‘And Joel?’ ‘Papa, he's lost.’ ‘And Ernesto?’ ‘Papa, he's lost.’ And then we knew that other members of the family were all lost, 14 in all.” His daughter, Maria Victoria Garcia, had survived but she lost her brother, Joel García Suárez age 24;  her husband, Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro age 25; and her son, Juan Mario Gutiérrez García age 10.

Jorge García was detained and interrogated on several occasions. His longest detention was for 15 days. His daughter, María Victoria García, was one of three of his family who survived the massacre but was still in danger:  "They tried on several occasions to kill my daughter, because she was the first to speak out and contradict the regime’s official narrative.”

Father and daughter had spoken on camera to Nightline from Havana, Cuba about the July 13, 1994 attack on the “13 de Marzo” tugboat.  A year later in 1999 they had to go into exile as political refugees fearing for their lives.

Twenty years later the remains of the thirty seven victims have not been recovered and returned to their families.  Nor has the state provided any compensation to the survivors or the families of the dead.

On Saturday, July 12 Jorge Garcia took part in a flotilla organized by the Democracy Movement ( Movimento Democracia ) that got within 12 miles of the coastline of Cuba and five miles from the spot that 20 years later still serves as a watery grave for fourteen family members including his son and grandson. This is as close as he can get to pay his respects to his loved ones.

On Sunday, July 13 at 3:00pm at Florida International University with members of the Free Cuba Foundation I took part in a 20 minute moment of silence to protest these 20 years of injustice and pray that a serious investigation finally be conducted, that the remains of the victims be returned to their families, and that the individuals responsible for this atrocity face justice in a fair trial with their rights respected in a court of law.

In the meanwhile let us pray for the 37 murdered 20 years ago and the eleven children who never had a chance to grow up and live full lives in freedom and that they and their loved ones may one day have justice.

Helen Martínez Enríquez ( 5 months)
Cindy Rodríguez Fernández (age 2)
José Carlos Nicole Anaya (3)
Angel Rene Abreu Ruiz ( age 3)
Yisel Borges Alvarez (4) 
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte (age 5)
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García (age 10) 

Yousell E. Perez Tacoronte (age 11)
Yasser Perodin Almanza (age 11)
Eliecer Suarez Plasencia ( age 12)
Mayulis Mendez Tacoronte (age 17)
Miladys Sanabria Cabrera ( age 19 )
Odalys Muñoz García (age 21)
Yuliana Enríquez Carrazana (age 22)
Yaltamira Anaya Carrasco (age 22)
Lissett María Álvarez Guerra (age 24)
José Gregorio Balmaceda Castillo (24)
Joel García Suárez (age 24)
Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro (age 25)
María Miralis Fernández Rodríguez (age 27)

Pilar Almanza Romero (age 28)
Leonardo Notario Góngora ( age 28)
Jorge Arquímides Lebrijio Flores (age 28)   
Rigoberto Feut Gonzáles (age 31)
Omar Rodriguez Suarez (age 33)
Lázaro Enrique Borges Briel (age 34)
Julia Caridad Ruiz Blanco (age 35)
Martha Caridad Tacoronte Vega (age 36)
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel ( age 39)
Martha M.Carrasco Sanabria (age 45)  
Augusto Guillermo Guerra Martínez ( age 45)
Rosa María Alcalde Puig (age 47)    
Estrella Suárez Esquivel (age 48)
Reynaldo Joaquín Marrero (age 48)       
Manuel Cayol (age 50)           
Amado Gonzáles Raices (50)
Fidelio Ramel Prieto-Hernández (51)

20 years later still no justice for 37 "13 de Marzo" tugboat victims: A Call to Remember and Take Action

“But men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice.” - Robert Jordan

The attack on and sinking of the"13 de Marzo" tugboat in the early morning hours of July 13, 1994 is probably one of the worse crimes committed by the Cuban government under the rule of the Castro brothers and it is definitely the best documented and widely recognized by international human rights bodies and is referenced in books on international law. 

However, after twenty years it has been largely forgotten (outside of the Cuban diaspora). The last time a national audience in the United States heard anything about this incident was during Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in 1998 when Ted Koppel's Nightline did a story and interviewed survivors and family members. Koppel in his program explained how the mainstream media reacted to the massacre:

"Three and a half years ago, in the summer of 1994, something terrible happened out there, seven or eight miles out at sea, off the northern coast of Cuba. it was an incident that went all but unnoticed in the US media. The Cuban-American community protested but they protest a lot and as I say, we in the mainstream media all but ignored it. The Vatican, however, did not.

Today this crime is absent from the public conversation on Cuba. It is important that it not be forgotten by the general public, remaining a painful memory among Cubans,  and that the demands of justice for the victims and their families not be ignored.  

What happened

Three Cuban families seeking a better life away from the dictatorship sought passage aboard the Cuban tugboat the “13 de Marzo.” The captain of the tug was part of the group wanting to leave. The tugboat left Havana on Wednesday, July 13, 1994 according to reported accounts at around 3:00am. No sooner had they left the port they were being pursued by two other tugboats, also of the Maritime Services Enterprise of the Ministry of Transportation.
Seven miles from the Cuban coast line at a location known as "La Poceta" the “13 de Marzo”tugboat was confronted by two other tugboats . Amnesty International in their 1997 investigation reported that the vessels which attacked the “13 de Marzo” were Polargo 2”, “Polargo 3″ and “Polargo 5″ and identified as belonging to the Ministry of Transport. In the IACHR  report the attack does not appear improvised:

  "Polargo 2," one of the boats belonging to the Cuban state enterprise, blocked the old tug "13 de Marzo" in the front, while the other, "Polargo 5," attacked from behind, splitting the stern.  The two other government boats positioned themselves on either side and sprayed everyone on deck with pressurized water, using their hoses.

The Amnesty International report mentions another vessel that "appeared to be directing operations was believed to belong to the Cuban Coast Guard, which is part of the Ministry of the Interior.”

Despite the “13 de Marzo” tugboat stopping and passengers attempting to surrender while mothers held up their children begging for mercy the other tugboats continued to ram the tug and use high pressure hoses to blast them overboard. Following this the attackers began to circle the wreckage with the aim of creating a whirlpool effect to ensure that all would drown. Sergio Perodin, one of the survivors who lost his wife and young son during the incident, explained how the massacre stopped in the Nightline program:

"We saw in the distance a boat with a Greek flag that appeared to be what stopped them. lt looked like the boat was watching what they were doing, the murder they were committing. So they stopped and decided to pick us up."

It was then and only then that the attack was suspended and the survivors picked up by the Cuban Coast Guard.

On August 5, 1994 Fidel Castro made a speech to the official news media justifying the incident and praising the men on the ships that attacked and sank the "13 de Marzo"tugboat:

"The workers' behavior was exemplary, there's no denying it, because they tried to stop them from stealing the boat.  What are we to say to them now, let them steal the boats, their livelihood?  The actions of the Coast Guard crews were irreproachable, they saved 25 lives.  So, this is what happened and as soon as information became available, more details were given. 

Within three years of the crime beginning first with the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1995, followed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1996 and Amnesty International in 1997 all released reports on what had occurred with the information then available. The most in-depth of the reports was the one prepared by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Human Rights Watch in their 1999 report "Cuba's Repressive Machinery: Human Rights Forty Years After the Revolution" in their chapter on impunity explained the importance of the IACHR report:

 On October 16, 1996, the commission approved a public report concluding that on July 13, 1994, Cuba violated the right to life of forty-one people who died when Cuban government boats rammed, flooded, and sank the 13 de Marzo, a hijacked tugboat loaded with civilians fleeing Cuba. The report also found that Cuba violated the right of personal integrity of the thirty-one survivors of the sinking, and violated the rights to transit and justice of all of the seventy-two persons who attempted to leave Cuba. The report provides shocking survivors' testimony of the Cuban government's deliberate attempts to sink the boat. Statements by President Castro and the Interior Ministry regarding responsibility for the incident provide a disturbing counterpoint to the victims' experiences. Clearly, the government's effort was to exculpate itself from responsibility, rather than conduct a serious investigation and punish those responsible for this incident.

 New information emerges

In 2009  Jorge García who lost 14 family members on July 13, 1994 sat down and spoke on camera about what he had learned about the actions of the Cuban government  both before and after the massacre. He also named names of those who participated in the attack and sinking of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat.
The one who, according to him, was the most aggressive, the bloodiest and oversaw the operation was Jesús González Machín, captain of the “Polargo 5″ that sunk the “13 de Marzo” tugboat. He actually had the opportunity to meet him and photograph him. Although Machín denied having sunk the “13 de Marzo,” he said something of tremendous importance: “I didn’t work that day. They called me at 6 p.m. that there was an operation at the port.”
 On 6:00 p.m. on July 12, 1994, at the Port of Havana, Cuban state security knew that the “13 de Marzo” tugboat was going to be taken and had nine hours to prepare their response.  What took place on July 13, 1994 was planned for ahead of time.
Following the massacre, family members imagined that the bodies would be returned to them. The government organized rapid response brigades and blocked anyone from visiting the home. The Cuban government had persons with weapons to intimidate survivors and the families of the victims. Jorge García was detained and interrogated on several occasions. His longest detention was for 15 days. His daughter, María Victoria García, was one of three of his family who survived the massacre and spoke out:

"They tried on several occasions to kill my daughter, because she was the first to speak out and contradict the regime’s official narrative.

Jorge and his daughter are now exiled in Miami. Jorge maintains an archive of information and has interviewed the survivors of the massacre and the families of the victims. He has also confirmed that the number killed that day was 37. The initial investigation had placed the number at 41 with four unknown but has now been confirmed to be the 37 listed below.
Twenty years later and the thirty seven victims of a massacre are still without justice. Their families not only denied justice but have yet to have their dear departed returned to them for a proper burial. People of good will inside and outside of Cuba are organizing actions such as flotillas, candlelight vigils, 20 minutes of silence for 20 years of injustice, and Masses prior to and on July 13 to remember and continue the call for justice.  The question I wish to ask you who are reading this: What are you willing to do?

The persons killed on July 13, 1994 in the "13 de Marzo" incident are: 

Leonardo Notario Góngora, 
Marta Tacoronte Vega, 
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte, 
Yausel Eugenio Pérez Tacoronte, 
Mayulis Méndez Tacoronte, 
Odalys Muñoz García, 
Pilar Almanza Romero, 
Yaser Perodín Almanza, 
Manuel Sánchez Callol, 
Juliana Enriquez Carrasana, 
Helen Martínez Enríquez, 
Reynaldo Marrero, 
Joel García Suárez, 
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García, 
Ernesto Alfonso Joureiro, 
Amado Gonzáles Raices, 
Lázaro Borges Priel, 
Liset Alvarez Guerra, 
Yisel Borges Alvarez , 
Guillermo Cruz Martínez, 
Fidelio Ramel Prieto-Hernández, 
Rosa María Alcalde Preig, 
Yaltamira Anaya Carrasco, 
José Carlos Nicole Anaya, 
María Carrasco Anaya, 
Julia Caridad Ruiz Blanco, 
Angel René Abreu Ruiz, 
Jorge Arquímides Lebrijio Flores, 
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel, 
Elicer Suárez Plascencia, 
Omar Rodríguez Suárez, 
Miralis Fernández Rodríguez, 
Cindy Rodríguez Fernández, 
José Gregorio Balmaceda Castillo, 
Rigoberto Feut Gonzáles, 
Midalis Sanabria Cabrera

Please say a prayer for them and their families that the truth in its fullness is known and that justice be provided.

February in Cuba: Month of Martyrs

“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living." - Cicero

"To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night

People ask what is one to think of changes in Cuba? One change that has taken place over the past two years is the rising body count of nonviolent dissidents dead under sinister circumstances.

The month of February is particularly poignant this year:

Wilman

One month ago today Cuban pro-democracy activist Wilman Villar Mendoza age 31, husband to Maritza Pelegrino Cabrera and father of 2 little girls died on hunger strike in Cuba. He was a prisoner of conscience, but the regime as it had done earlier with the case of Orlando Zapata Tamayo carried out a campaign to slander the martyred activist.

Orlando

Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a human rights defender, died two years ago on February 23, 2010 after being systematically tortured and driven into a hunger strike as a last recourse to save his life and dignity. During the water only hunger strike prison officials took his water away contributing to his death. The dictatorship then engaged in an international slander campaign against him and his family.

Laura

Laura Inés Pollán Toledo would've turned 64 years old on February 13 but instead she died, under what her husband Hector Maseda described as strange circumstances, on October 14, 2011. Laura Pollán was one of the founders of the Ladies in White, a movement that forced the Cuban government to the negotiating table to release their loved ones beginning in July 2010. Laura had the leadership skills to be an alternative to the Castro brothers.

Armando, Mario, Carlos and Pablo

Finally, the 24th of this month marks the day sixteen years ago that two Brothers to the Rescue planes, part of an organization that saved thousands of fleeing rafters, were shot down over international airspace on the orders of Fidel and Raul Castro killing Armando Alejandre Jr. (age 45), Carlos Alberto Costa ( age 29), Mario Manuel de la Peña (age 24), and Pablo Morales (age 29). This act of state terrorism was achieved thanks in part to intelligence gathered by a Cuban spy network codenamed "Avispa" which means "Wasp" in English.

People of goodwill have an obligation to remember the victims of injustice and speak for those who no longer can in demanding justice. Join the call to action.