State terrorism: Fire at the El Encanto store

By Katherin Hormigó Rubio, translated from the Spanish

The Cuban Revolution has lived under constant siege: military, economic, financial, commercial, and media. The US empire has been relentless against this small archipelago, which has shown that it is possible to be dignified and principled in this world.

Everything has been tried against Cuba. Especially, and ferociously, a terrorism that maims and kills. A policy of State Terrorism initiated shortly after January 1, 1959.

The 1960s, when the nascent Cuban Revolution was writing its first pages of equality, social justice, and progress “with all and for the good of all,” as the Apostle always wished, was also a period of harsh confrontation with mercenary attacks and the “new strategies” of the government in power in the White House, which began with the murder of union leaders and volunteer teachers, and explosions: that of the steamship La Coubre in the port of Havana, and in public establishments and stores like El Encanto, where the prominent revolutionary Fe del Valle lost her life, to mention just a few examples.

On April 13, the El Encanto department store in Havana firebombed and was consumed by flames as a result of a terrorist attack organized and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the United States government, in which employee Fe del Valle Ramos lost her life .

Information made public at the time, and later duly verified, showed that the criminal attack on one of the largest stores of its kind in the country was not an isolated incident, although it was the only one of its magnitude that was carried out in the capital.

It was part of the project named Operation Pluto, dedicated to creating a favorable climate for the mercenary invasion of Playa Girón that would begin on April 17 of that year, and in which the Cuban people would ultimately emerge victorious.

Witnesses on that April 13 recalled how, after evacuating the building, which was consumed by a fire that couldn't be quickly extinguished, Fe returned when she realized that the money intended for children's centers had been left in the flames. She didn't want it to be lost, but she was trapped there, unable to get out.

This has forever defined her as a heroine of the people. Born of humble origins on August 1, 1917, in the central town of Remedios, in the former province of Las Villas. This simple young woman, affectionately nicknamed Lula, was able to study until her first year of high school.

During Gerardo Machado's dictatorship, her family was facing difficult economic times, and she decided to move to the capital in search of a better life. She was 17 when she began working as an apprentice hat-maker.

Later, she got a job as a saleswoman at the Fin de Siglo department store, which prepared her for her later entry into El Encanto, at a time when she was already collaborating in the urban struggle against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista.

There she made efforts to create a union, but they were unsuccessful. However, at the same time, she demonstrated that she was very responsible, efficient, and skilled in her work, leading to her being appointed head of a department.

She had a very affable nature, with clear ideas about social justice and labor rights. This always earned her the sympathy and appreciation of her subordinates.

Married since 1938 to a communist activist, the relationship strengthened her principles and helped her fully embrace the cause of socialism.

The deliberate arson attack that resulted in her death was part of the aforementioned covert operation, authorized by President John F. Kennedy, which included sabotage, actions by rebel gangs in the countryside and counterrevolutionary organizations in the cities, and the assassination of revolutionaries. Attacks on stores and businesses were also planned.

Nothing was left to chance. CIA experts used flasks filled with synthetic explosives, the volume of which surreptitiously fit precisely into the Eden cigarette packs widely sold at the time. They would then be very easy to place "casually" in the designated locations.

Such sinister care made it possible for some 75 tons of explosives and 46.5 tons of weapons and other equipment to secretly enter Cuba by air and sea in the months prior to the invasion, destined for urban terrorists and rebel gangs in areas of the Escambray Mountains.

The ferocious deployment had caused some criminals operating in the mountains and the city to develop a boating sense of pride, handing out charges trying to organize themselves better. Unfortunately, they also committed mischief and murder wherever they went. It would be the beginning of a long epic that would be called "Fight Against Bandits."

In the terrorist act that caused the fire in El Encanto, Antonio Veciana, one of the leaders of the People's Revolutionary Movement (MRP), was identified and arrested. He stated that his organization had recruited a store employee for the sabotage, who placed the devices on several floors and activated them at 6:00 pm after the establishment closed.

The executioner had only asked for his escape from the country, heading for Uncle Sam's land, by sea. He was unable to realize his dream, as revolutionary justice arrived in time. He was detained while waiting to be picked up on the coast of Baracoa Beach, west of the capital.

Without mincing words, this other character quickly identified those who hired him and revealed every detail of the plan. It was that simple, although unfortunately, the abominable act couldn't be prevented in time, and a selfless worker like Fe left us so early, in such a savage manner.

Terrorism against Cuba is not a thing of the past. Historical archives record some 60 aircraft hijackings or attempted hijackings over these 60 years; more than 50 bombings with explosives and live phosphorus against Cuban sugar mills and populated urban areas by small planes that flew to and from the United States with impunity; 110 dynamite attacks, the detonation of 200 bombs, 950 fires, and six derailments in less than six months, before April 1961, when the mercenary invasion took place at the Bay of Pigs; more than 600 attempted attacks against Fidel Castro and other leaders of the Revolution; and a biological warfare that took the lives of children and the elderly and caused incalculable material damage to our economy.

From 1959 to 1998, a total of approximately 560 serious acts of terror were committed by these neo-fascist groups against Cuba.

As a result of 681 proven and documented terrorist actions and the mercenary invasion of Playa Girón, 3,478 women, men, and children have died. Another 2,099 have been left disabled.

This work was translated and shared via a License CC-BY-NC