In the month of May, the United States has orchestrated a variety of terrorist acts against the largest island in the Caribbean. Undoubtedly, when May is announced in every part of the island, Cubans immediately think of two dates: the first day, when we take to the streets to vindicate the eternal spring we defend with flags, and the second Sunday of the month when we celebrate Mother’s Day. But the fifth month of the year also brings bitter memories for those born in this land.

We can say that May is the month of reaffirmation of love for Mother and Homeland. However, the enemies of the happiness that springs from Cubans have made it bitter on several occasions
on several occasions, turning it into a time of sad memories and painful absences.

It is then that the weight of the more than three thousand dead and two thousand wounded hurts us greatly and we look to the North, where the treacherous and criminal coup has always come from. From there, from Florida, from the murderous plot set up by the United States and a group of heartless thugs, came death on that sad seventh of May 1961, when a boat of the nascent Revolutionary War Navy disappeared.

Captained by Commander Andrés González Lines and composed of seventeen crew members, the R-43 mysteriously disappeared ten miles north of Mariel. There always remained the doubt, the painful premonition that the uncertain fate of those men was caused by the criminal hand of our enemies.

With the death of González Lines, a worthy man disappeared. Of humble origin and a lover of the sea, he managed to fulfil his dreams by entering the Mariel Naval Academy by competitive examination with a view to becoming an officer in the merchant navy. A communist militant since 1937, he finally graduated as a frigate ensign in the Cuban naval force.

Appointed a professor at this military institution, he opposed Batista’s coup of 10 March.

He realised that from there he could best help the revolutionary cause. In a heroic act of rebellion and patriotic love, he took part in the popular uprising of 5 September 1957, after which he was sentenced to six years in prison and released when the Revolution triumphed.

The continued terrorism against Cuba in the month of May manifested itself in diverse and repugnant ways. From the infiltration of terrorists to commit attacks against the Commander-in-Chief, to attacks on Cuban towns and factories.

There were also attacks, kidnappings and harassment against Cuban vessels such as those carried out against the Cuban schooner Joven Amalia, against the vessel San Pedro and the attacks against the fishing boats Plataforma 1 and Plataforma 4. The CIA and Cuban counterrevolutionary organisations attacked diplomatic headquarters in other countries on several occasions.

Within this context of aggressions in May, perhaps the most repugnant event was the arson attack on the largest children’s circle in Cuba at the time. Endangering the lives of nearly six hundred children and those of other Cubans, the hand of the enemies of the Revolution tried to strike us vilely that May 8, 1979.

Many pages of terror could be described, but the list would be endless. The murderers who carried out those acts, the same ones who on May 20, 1995 also shot with impunity the Guitart Cayo Coco hotel, still roam freely in Florida and even boast about their criminal adventures against Cuba.

May knows this well, as he has been witness to many of their outrages. We, too, know it, for we have suffered it in the depths of our hearts.