Reconciliation necessitates both truth and justice.
Fact 1: In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994, four boats belonging to the Cuban State and equipped with water hoses attacked an old tugboat that was fleeing Cuba with 72 people on board. The incident occurred seven miles off the Cuban coast, opposite the port of Havana. The complaint also indicates that the Cuban State boats attacked the runaway tug with their prows with the intention of sinking it, while at the same time spraying everyone on the deck of the boat, including women and children, with pressurized water. The pleas of the women and children to stop the attack were in vain, and the old boat--named "13 de Marzo"--sank, with a toll of 41 deaths, including ten minors. Thirty-one people survived the events of July 13, 1994.
Source: IACHR REPORT Nº 47/96 CASE 11.436 VICTIMS OF THE TUGBOAT "13 DE MARZO" vs. CUBA October 16, 1996 http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/96eng/Cuba11436.htm
Fact 2: According to eyewitnesses who survived the disaster, no sooner had the tug "13 de Marzo" set off from the Cuban port than two boats from the same state enterprise began pursuing it. About 45 minutes into the trip, when the tug was seven miles away from the Cuban coast--in a place known as "La Poceta"--two other boats belonging to said enterprise appeared, equipped with tanks and water hoses, proceeded to attack the old tug. "Polargo 2," one of the boats belonging to the Cuban state enterprise, blocked the old tug "13 de Marzo" in the front, while the other, "Polargo 5," attacked from behind, splitting the stern. The two other government boats positioned themselves on either side and sprayed everyone on deck with pressurized water, using their hoses.
Source: IACHR REPORT Nº 47/96 CASE 11.436 VICTIMS OF THE TUGBOAT "13 DE MARZO" vs. CUBA October 16, 1996 http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/96eng/Cuba11436.htm
Fact 3: The pleas of the women and children on the deck of the tug "13 de Marzo" did nothing to stop the attack. The boat sank, with a toll of 41 dead. Many people perished because the jets of water directed at everyone on deck forced them to seek refuge in the engine room. The survivors also affirmed that the crews of the four Cuban government boats were dressed in civilian clothes and that they did not help them when they were sinking.
Source: IACHR REPORT Nº 47/96 CASE 11.436 VICTIMS OF THE TUGBOAT "13 DE MARZO" vs. CUBA October 16, 1996 http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/96eng/Cuba11436.htm
Fact 4: In the days immediately following the tragedy, the authorities attempted to prevent any protest or public demonstration of grief. A mass for the victims had to be cancelled and people wearing black armbands as a sign of mourning were also reportedly detained briefly. Relatives of the victims were also reportedly prevented from throwing flowers into the sea on the grounds that that is only usually done for “martyrs of the Revolution”. On 23 July 1994 Aida Rosa Jiménezof the Movimiento de Madres Cubanas Por la Solidaridad, Movement of Cuban Mothers for Solidarity, which had called on Cuba women to wear black or purple ribbons for three days as a sign of mourning, was arrested at her home and taken to State Security headquarters at Villa Marista. She was reportedly told by officials that it was because of her efforts to encourage people to attend a mass in commemoration of the victims of the tugboat sinking.
Source: Amnesty International "Human Rights Defenders and Activists Cuba: The sinking of the "13 de Marzo" Tugboat on 13 July 1994" 30 June 1997, Index number: AMR 25/013/1997 https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/013/1997/en/
Fact 5: In 1996, in his report to the 52nd Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights7, the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions stated that he had transmitted allegations concerning the case to the Cuban Government in June 1995 and expressed deep concern that he had not received a reply. He urged that the allegations be properly investigated, the perpetrators brought to justice and the victims’ families compensated. The UN Special Rapporteur on Cuba, in his interim report to the UN General Assembly dated 7 October 1996, also expressed serious concern “about the fact that an event of this magnitude, in which 37 people died, has not been investigated”.
Source: Amnesty International "Human Rights Defenders and Activists Cuba: The sinking of the "13 de Marzo" Tugboat on 13 July 1994" 30 June 1997, Index number: AMR 25/013/1997 https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr25/013/1997/en/
Fact 6: Despite consistent testimonies that four Transportation Ministry boats fired water cannons onto the decks of the tugboat and later rammed and sank it, President Castro denied a government role in the sinking.131 Although President Castro asserted that Cuba had fully investigated the incident, the commission noted that Cuba never recovered the bodies lost in the tugboat, nor the boat itself, and concluded that "there was no judicial investigation and the political organs directed by the Cuban Chief of State rushed to absolve of all responsibility the officials who went to meet the 13 de Marzo tugboat."132
Source: Human Rights Watch,Cuba's Repressive Machinery https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-11.htm (1999)
Fact 7: The victims who died in the incident of July 13, 1994 are: Leonardo Notario Góngora (27), Marta Tacoronte Vega (36), Caridad Leyva Tacoronte (36), Yausel Eugenio Pérez Tacoronte (11), Mayulis Méndez Tacoronte (17), Odalys Muñoz García (21), Pilar Almanza Romero (30), Yaser Perodín Almanza (11), Manuel Sánchez Callol (58), Juliana Enriquez Carrasana (23), Helen Martínez Enríquez (6 months), Reynaldo Marrero (45), Joel García Suárez (24), Juan Mario Gutiérrez García (10), Ernesto Alfonso Joureiro (25), Amado Gonzáles Raices (50), Lázaro Borges Priel (34), Liset Alvarez Guerra (24), Yisel Borges Alvarez (4), Guillermo Cruz Martínez (46), Fidelio Ramel Prieto-Hernández (51), Rosa María Alcalde Preig (47), Yaltamira Anaya Carrasco (22), José Carlos Nicole Anaya (3), María Carrasco Anaya (44), Julia Caridad Ruiz Blanco (35), Angel René Abreu Ruiz (3), Jorge Arquímides Lebrijio Flores (28), Eduardo Suárez Esquivel (39), Elicer Suárez Plascencia, Omar Rodríguez Suárez (33), Miralis Fernández Rodríguez (28), Cindy Rodríguez Fernández (2), José Gregorio Balmaceda Castillo (24), Rigoberto Feut Gonzáles (31), Midalis Sanabria Cabrera (19).
Source: IACHR REPORT Nº 47/96 CASE 11.436 VICTIMS OF THE TUGBOAT "13 DE MARZO" vs. CUBA October 16, 1996 http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/96eng/Cuba11436.htm
Fact 8:
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who was murdered on July 22, 2012 by state
security agents, addressed the significance of this crime. "Behind the
Christ of Havana, about seven miles from the coast, "volunteers" of the
Communist regime committed one of the most heinous crimes in the history
of our city and of Cuba." ... "Let the silenced bells toll. But let
them toll for all the victims of terror that in reality is only one sole
victim: the Cuban people that without distinctions, suffers the loss of
each one of their children."
Source: Human Rights Watch,Cuba's Repressive Machinery https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-11.htm (1999)
Fact 9:
One year after the massacre on July 13, 1995, Cuban exiles gathered
together and set out in a flotilla that peacefully invaded Cuban
national territory to travel to the spot where the "13 de Marzo" tugboat
sank and where the human remains of the 37 victims still reside never returned to their families to this day
to hold religious services for them. Ramón Saúl Sánchez organized and
led the flotilla aboard the boat christened "Democracia". Upon entering
Cuban waters the Castro regime sent their patrol boats, helicopters, and
MiGs to surround and intimidate the flotilla, but it continued until
the lead boat's hull was crushed by two patrol boats, and people onboard
were hurt.
Fact 10: Responding to the attack on the flotilla on July 13, 1995, Brothers to the Rescue planes overflew Havana dropping leaflets that read "Comrades No. Brothers" in Spanish. It was on that day that the Democracy Movement came into existence. It was also on that day that the Castro regime began planning its reprisal against Brothers to the Rescue, enlisting members of the WASP spy network to provide intelligence that led to the deaths of four innocents on February 24, 1996 in an act of state terrorism.
