Sabotage to the French Steamship “La Coubre”
March 4, 1960
At 3:15 on the afternoon of March 4th, 1960, the steamship La Coubre, with a cargo of Belgian-made grenades for FAL rifles, blew up on the dockside in Havana. The explosion caused 101 deaths, over 200 injuries and an indeterminate number of disappearances. The U.S. government had put the Belgian authorities under pressure not to send the arms shipment to the island, and from January of that same year the CIA had unleashed an underground war against the Cuban Revolution.
The factory from which these weapons had originated in Belgium had
been under US pressure not to sell arms to Cuba. The U.S. consul in Belgium and a military attaché at the embassy had personally put the factory and the Belgian Foreign Ministry under pressure not to sell the weapons.
The Cuban authorities had received a substantial amount of confidential information regarding both official and unofficial pressure applied by the United States to prevent the sale of weaponry to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
This act of sabotage deprived Cuba of 44 tons of grenades and 31 tons of munitions.
In the case of previous shipments, the entire cargo had been loaded via barges in the Bay of Amberes. Nevertheless, on this occasion the munitions and the general cargo had been stowed directly at the docks.
“The project to overthrow Castro had become a major activity of the Agency with the highest political support.”
Report by CIA inspector, Lyman Kirkpatrick, Taken from El Nuevo Herald (2/3/98)
“As I said to President Castro, I understand the suspicions that have arisen. We had begun to carry out some sabotage at that time, but this was not amongst them, as far as I know…”
Robert Reynolds, head of the CIA station in Miami from September 1960 to October 1961. Academic Conference “Bay of Pigs, 40 years later”, held in Havana in March of 2001. (Editor’s Note.)
Coded. Top Secret. November 24, 1959. From Washington to British Secret Service. “I had to see Alien Dulles this morning on another matter and took the opportunity to discuss Cuba on a strictly personal basis. From his own point of view, he said that he greatly hoped that we would decide not to go ahead with the Hunter deal [in reference to the moves Cuba was making to purchase planes from the United Kingdom, Editor’s note]. His main reason was that this might lead the Cubans to ask for Soviet or Soviet bloc arms. He had not cleared this with the State Department, but it was, of course, a fact that in the case of Guatemala it had been the shipment of Soviet arms that had brought the opposition elements together and created the occasions for what was done.”
Document declassified by the British government. Forms part of the legacy handed over to Cuba by the U.S. party at the Academic Conference “Bay of Pigs, 40 years later.” (E.N.)
“There was no doubt that the ship had been sabotaged, that it was not an accident caused when transporting a case of anti-tank grenades amongst the cargo…
“Quite simply, there was a general belief that this had been an act of sabotage, carried out by CIA.”
Fidel Castro Ruz. Academic Conference “Bay of Pigs, 40 years later.”
Held in Havana, March 2001. (E.N.)
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http://www.capitansanluis.cu/sites/default/files/archivos/libros/lacoubreing.pdf
