Attachment
Diplomatic note from the Czech Ambassador to
Rusk
The Ambassador of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic presents his
compliments to His Excellency the Secretary of State of the United
States of America and, at the behest of the Revolutionary Government
of the Republic of Cuba, has the honor to deliver the following note
of protest:
“1. In the early morning of June 10, a group of mercenaries who had
been sheltered in the United States, manning a pirate launch armed
with machine guns and a 30 mm. gun and proceeding from United States
territory, landed at Cayo Blanco, 15 kilometers from Cárdenas Bay,
Province of Matansas, and later staged a surprise attack on a patrol
of four seamen who were exploring the place, killing Jesús Fernández
Ramírez and capturing Daniel Expósito Torres and Calimerio Ramírez
Jérez, and leaving abandoned at the site numerous weap
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ons of
American manufacture, explosives, food, and various supplies from
the same source.
“In their flight toward United States territory, the pirates took
possession of the Cuban fishing boat Elvira,
forcing the boat’s crew by threats to take them to Cayo Marathón,
where they disembarked, taking the captured persons with them. This
act is not consistent with the announcement of the United States
Government that it would prevent such attacks against Cuba from
United States territory.
“The Revolutionary Government of Cuba hereby registers its protest
and at the same time demands appropriate punishment and the return
of the kidnapped citizens and of the Cuban fishing boat Elvira.
“2. The statements made by Richard I. Phillips, [illegible in the
original] officer of the Department of State of the United States,
and sent out by the news agencies on June 19, are from all
standpoints a clear incitement
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to sedition and subversion
and represent a reiteration of the interventionist policy of the
United States with respect to the internal affairs of the Republic
of Cuba. The Government of Cuba protests against such
manifestations, which signify only the continuation of a policy that
has cost the United States countless reverses and risks.
“3. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba likewise protests the recent
low-altitude flight over Cuban territory made by a military aircraft
of the United States for purposes of spying, which the American
press itself has made known, and it warns that Cuban gunners have
orders to fire at any foreign military aircraft that makes
low-altitude flights over our territory.
“4. On June 17, customs agents at Miami, Florida, announced the
confiscation, at an abandoned airport in the Everglades area, of a
twin-engined aircraft, Beechcraft Bonanza type, at the very time it
was preparing to take off for Cuba for the purpose of bombing the
oil refinery located in Habana Bay, a load of napalm bombs,
explosives, grenades, small arms, and 300 sticks of TNT dynamite
having been found in the cabin. The aircraft’s six crewmen, five
counterrevolutionary Cubans and one American, identified as
[illegible in the original] Alpicer, Carlos Hernández Sánchez, René
Espinosa Hernández, Víctor Espinosa Hernández, Miguel Alvárez, and
Sam Benton, were immediately released, notwithstanding the fact that
they were guilty of a flagrant violation of both international and
United States law.
“This act, as well as the attack [illegible in the original] late
last April on [illegible in the original] Cuban refinery by a plane
that took off from United States territory carrying powerful
explosive charges, compels us to step up our defense preparations in
order to be ready to intercept and shoot down any [illegible in the
original] plane that violates our air space at any altitude.
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“5. On June 21 the petty chiefs of the counterrevolution openly
proclaimed, from United States territory, the accomplishment of
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infiltration activities and the introduction of arms into the
country to carry on aggressive acts against the Cuban people. These
arms and agents can only have come from the United States or from
other countries than Cuba.
This is in violation of international rules. It creates a [illegible
in the original] in the Hemisphere, that [illegible in the original]
the law of other countries can [illegible in the original] nothing
[illegible in the original] between the United States and Cuba or
[illegible in the original] or the [illegible in the original] by
the aggressions [illegible in the original] our country.
“It is regrettable that the [illegible in the original] have recourse
[illegible in the original] to these rules [illegible in the
original] that are in all ways [illegible in the original] story to
world public [illegible in the original] with [illegible in the
original] concern the [illegible in the original] Cuba that can
[illegible in the original]”
Embassy of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
