Fugitive soldiers kill officer in failed hijack bid, Cuba says
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press
HAVANA — A pair of heavily armed Cuban soldiers seized a city bus,
killed an army officer and triggered a gun battle in a foiled bid to
hijack a charter flight bound for the United States.
The young army deserters were arrested before dawn Thursday on the
tarmac of a terminal that handles special charter flights between Havana
and Miami, as well as New York and other American cities.
The soldiers forced a city bus to head to Havana's Jose Marti
International Airport at gunpoint and killed Army Lt. Col. Victor Ibo
Acuna Velazquez aboard a plane that had no passengers or crew —
apparently because there were no flights at the early hour. Both were
apprehended.
An Interior Ministry statement suggested that Acuna Velazquez, who was
unarmed, happened to be on the bus at the time it was commandeered and
died "heroically" trying to thwart the hijacking. Other bus passengers
were unharmed.
The government blamed anti-Cuba U.S. policy for the incident.
"The responsibility for these new crimes lies with the highest-ranking
authorities of the United States, adding to the long list of terrorist
acts that Cuba has been the victim of for nearly half a century," it said.
Havana says U.S. immigration policies giving most Cubans almost
guaranteed residency encourages them to risk their lives to get to the
United States, and says that American officials have long tolerated —
even encouraged — violence against the communist-run country.
The incident comes amid an ongoing political campaign by Cuba's
government accusing U.S. authorities of protecting its archenemy Luis
Posada Carriles, a 79-year-old Cuban militant who it accuses of an
airliner bombing three decades ago and a string of Havana hotel bombings
in the late 1990s.
Thursday's was the first Cuban hijacking attempt reported since the
spring of 2003, when an architect seized an airliner carrying passengers
on a domestic flight from the Isle of Youth and diverted it to the
United States by brandishing fake grenades. The hijacker was later
sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States.
The previous month, six hijackers forced a Cuban passenger plane to fly
to the U.S. at knifepoint. U.S. Air Force fighter jets forced the
aircraft to land in Key West.
Thursday's suspects were among three army soldiers on mandatory military
service who fled their base with assault rifles Sunday after killing a
fellow soldier and wounding another. The statement said the third
escaped soldier was captured before the attempted hijacking but it did
not say when.
Because they were active soldiers when the crimes occurred, the three
almost certainly will face a lightening-quick trial by military
tribunal. The death penalty is likely.
Before the attempted hijacking, the three escaped soldiers were the
focus of a huge manhunt. The Defense Ministry over the weekend
distributed circulars, describing the fugitive soldiers as armed and
dangerous.
The men, all from the eastern province of Camaguey, were identified as
Leandro Cerezo Sirut and Alain Forbus Lameru, both 19, and Yoan Torres
Martinez, 21. It was unclear which two were involved in the attempted
hijacking.
Caridad Carbonel, who has lived near Havana's airport for 34 years, said
she was awakened by gunfire Thursday and saw a vehicle roll onto the
tarmac through a side checkpoint.
"There was a terrible shootout," the 68-year-old said. "I feel awful
because things shouldn't be this way. Young people need to live
differently."
Within hours of the attempted hijacking, all was calm and running
on-time at the airport, though the bus and plane involved sat on the
tarmac for hours.
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