Guyana is pushing for justice for the victims of the 1976 Cubana Airways bombing.
During a memorial ceremony in Barbados on Wednesday, President Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali declared that Guyana would never bow to terrorists and that, despite the passage of time, justice must be served.
“The passage of time has not absolved the intellectual authors of this crime, nor has it quelled our demand for justice for the innocent victims of the Cubana Airways disaster,” Ali stated.
According to Guyana’s Department of Information, Ali stated that the attack, which was organised by individuals with ties to the US Central Intelligence Agency, was an attack on the independence of English-speaking countries.
Cubana Airways Flight CU-455 was scheduled to fly from Guyana to Trinidad, then to Barbados, then to Jamaica, and finally to Cuba from Kinston. Two bombs exploded in the plane nine minutes after it took off from Barbados Seawell International Airport (now Grantley Adams Airport), causing it to crash into the Atlantic Ocean.
Eric Norton, Ann Nelson, Seshnarine Kumar, Jaqueline Williams, Rawle Thomas, Margaret Bradshaw, Gordon Sobha, Violet Thomas, Rita Thomas, Raymond Persaud, and Sabrina Harripaul were among the 11 Guyanese killed in the bombing.