September 11 to Mark Three Tragedies

HAVANA TIMES, Sept. 10 — Saturday, September 11, will mark three tragedies in recent history.  One brought many refugees to Cuba, another mourning to the island and the third led to several conflicts in the Middle East with global ramifications.

On Sept. 11, 1973, the US-backed coup —supported by the Nixon administration— toppled the constitutional government of Salvador Allende in Chile and began 17 years of dictatorship headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.  Many thousands of Chileans were killed or disappeared under Pinochet.  As many as 200,000 Chileans were forced into exile in Argentina, Peru, Cuba and other countries.

On Sept. 11, 1980, Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia was murdered in New York, a plot organized by a Cuban-American terrorist group, Omega 7.  Since 1959 over three thousand Cubans have been killed in terrorist actions by Miami-based groups operating with the consent and/or support of the US government.

On Sept. 11, 2001, an attack took place involving four planes that crashed into two symbols of US economic and military power, the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. From that day on, and under the pretext of fighting terrorism, President George W. Bush justified the attack and occupation of both Afghanistan and Iraq, still taking place under the Obama administration.