Statement from Rock Around the Blockade and the Revolutionary Communist Group.

We condemn the recent attack on the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC. The incident occurred on 24 September, when an individual threw two Molotov cocktails at the embassy building. Fortunately, no personnel were hurt. The attack took place just a few hours after Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel returned from his trip to the United Nations in New York where he addressed the UN General Assembly.

UN members states have a duty under the Geneva Conventions to protect foreign embassies. This is just the latest of 581 attacks against Cuban diplomatic missions since the Cuban Revolution in 1959, which have killed as many as 365 people and injured 721, including foreign nationals. It is the second attack on the Cuban diplomatic mission in the US in recent years, following an attack by an individual firing a AK-47 assault rifle at the building in 2020. In 2021, the Cuban embassy in Paris also came under a Molotov cocktail attack.

The US government officially condemned the 24 September attack in a statement by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and US Secret Service agents were invited by the Cuban diplomatic mission to investigate the site of the attack. Sullivan's statement is a welcome departure from previous protocol, as the Trump administration did not condemn the 2020 attack or cooperate in investigating it. However, US imperialism bears heavy responsibility for anti-Cuban hostility: it has sponsored terrorist attacks and assassinations against Cuba; protected anti-Cuban terrorists from justice; and maintained a 63-year siege against Cuba, the longest blockade in history.

The US continues to include Cuba on its ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ list, yet Cuba is a victim of terrorism and a sponsor of peace. As stated by Bruno Rodriguez, Cuba's foreign minister: 'Anti-Cuban groups resort to terrorism because they feel impunity, something Cuba has warned US authorities about.'

We call for solidarity with Cuba, the end of the blockade and the end of terrorism against Cuba. We express our solidarity with Cuba facing these attacks against its sovereignty and self-determination.