FOUNDATION FOR CUBAN RIGHTS IN CUBA

	PRESS RELEASE
	For immediate release			Contact  Omar López
		July 13th / 2004		(305) 592 - 7768

THE MASSACRE OF THE 13 OF MARCH TUGBOAT:  

10 YEARS OF IMPUNITY

  Miami, July 12, 2004.  On the 10^th anniversary of the “13 de marzo” tugboat massacre, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba takes the opportunity to remind the international community that the unrecovered remains of the 37 victims of the tugboat massacre, including 10 children, remain in the waters just off the Havana harbor while those who carried out the massacre remain free.

 

In blatant violation of the most basic international human rights norms, the Cuban regime has repeatedly denied all requests for a thorough investigation of the events that took place on July 13, 1994 and have failed to respond to the legal complaint filed at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights.  Not one of the individuals involved in committing these heinous acts has been subject to judicial inquiry or even questioned by authorities. 

 

All inquiries carried out in relation to the massacre have proven that the Cuban authorities not only ordered the sinking of the tugboat but that the crime was premeditated.  The Inter-American Commission report reflects this finding as does the University of Michigan, which has conducted its own independent studies of the incident, and the book written by Jorge A. Garcia who lost 14 family members in the massacre.  Marcelo Lopez Bañobre, a human rights activist who has conducted the only independent investigation of the events within Cuba, was sentenced to 15 years in prison during the recent mass wave of arrests of dissidents in March of 2003.

 

10 years after the horrible massacre, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba joins the survivors and family members of the victims in asking international human rights organizations and activists to demand a thorough investigation into this crime and that justice finally be delivered to the dozens of innocent human beings who perished.

 

 

Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba   PO BOX 440069  Miami, FL 33145

Phone: 305-592-7768  Fax: 305-592-7889  website: www.canf.org