Target: Cabaret Tropicana.

The most ambitious terrorist plan against Cuba in the 1990s

When Tropicana was founded at the end of the 1930s as a rare tropical version of the Folies Bergères, situated in the tropical and paradisiacal environment of a suburban farm in Marianao -known as Villa Mina- a few businessmen, led by Víctor Correa, bet on a promising future for their attempt to create a unique night club.

However, they never could have imagined that, many years later, this dream would be involved in a macabre intrigue of terrorist attacks endangering the lives of its many visitors and destroying the magic and enchantment of its long-standing legacy.

A sporadic visitor to the Beneath the Stars Salon, whenever I entered the luxurious glass lobby, I would feel captivated by the music and the invitation of my occasional companion to pass the time enjoying ourselves, with love and fantasy, delight and abandonment.

“There’s so much life here,” I said to myself more than once; and my life was transformed into a kaleidoscope of multi-colored lights, idyllic vegetation, suggestive music and sensual bodies. Nor could I imagine then that, some time later, I would be caught up in these same criminal plans and that I would be involved in two of the three plans that were

publicly known, and were aimed at destroying such a marvellous place.

Tropicana cabaret is, right now, one of the largest and most famous nightspots in Cuba. It has become, without a doubt, a venue not to be missed for those visiting the island.

It is a complex of facilities offering visitors the option of getting to know the best Cuban music and enjoying delicious cocktails and an exquisite gourmet meal. Included in this is the Beneath the Stars Salon, a fantasy place in which the vegetation is part of the inevitably gigantic musical show, where almost 1,000 spectators can enjoy Afro-Cuban dancing, national and international singers of incomparable quality, as well as cigars and Cuban rum.

Along with the Beneath the Stars Salon, there is Los Jardines restaurant and the bohemian Café Rodney. With more than 300 employees, it receives almost half a million visitors every year.

Many famous international performers from the artistic world have appeared there, including Nat King Cole, Josephine Baker, Xavier Cugat, the Chavales from Spain, Carmen Miranda, Pedro Vargas, Libertad Lamarque, Tania Libertad, Alejandra Guzmán, Cheo Feliciano, Celia Cruz, Olga Guillot, Elena Burke, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve, to name but a few.

Characterized by the beauty of its interiors, the virtuosity of its dancers, the magnificent shows and many other attributes, it became a National Monument in 2002 in accordance with Decree 178 of the National Monuments Council.

TROPICANA: TERRORIST TARGET

In 1993, during a trip to Miami to visit relatives, Orfiris Pérez Cabrera -a Cuban citizen resident on the island- was contacted by terrorist Luis Zuñiga Rey, a member of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF).

The aim of the meeting was clear: they would pay him $20,000 USD to place an explosive device in the cabaret and to carry out other violent activities inside the country.

This individual immediately devoted himself to fulfilling the orders he had received from outside the country. He studied the cabaret’s buildings down to the last detail and set about waiting for the explosives to be supplied from his bosses in Miami. Uncovered by Cuban State Security, a tight security operation was mounted around him.

It was my task to act as a supposed envoy of the terrorists and, confused by unusual confidence in himself, he explained his plans to me down to the last detail.

Thanks to this measure -and others not necessary to comment on here- the first planned attack on the famous Tropicana, involving placing a powerful explosive and/or incendiary devices in the area destined for visitors and dancers, was neutralized.

Obviously, it was an unforgettable experience for me and I felt a healthy pride in being of use to Cuba, as well as simply saving so many innocent lives. Inside, I felt a great hatred towards those persons capable of killing for their own political and economic ends.

But I couldn’t guess at that point that life would once again give me the privilege of preventing another attack on Tropicana. I could not imagine it, even when I was living with those Miami criminals in my position as an anti-terrorist fighter in the very entrails of the monster.

In August 1994, as a CANF agent in Cuba, I received orders from Francisco José Hernández Calvo (Pepe), president of that terrorist organization, to mount an explosives attack on the famous cabaret.

Immediately, guided by my officers within Cuban State Security, I devoted myself to preparing the supposed attack: filming and photographing the Beneath the Stars Salon -the defined object of the attack- and handed over a sketch of it. In subsequent journeys to Miami, the plan was drawn up.

It consisted of placing an explosive device there in the coming months to shock foreign tourists and affect that growing industry. The precise location was to be a place adjoining the stage and immediately below the band area, where the highest concentration of foreign visitors was to be found.

Everything was ready by November 1994. The device was to be placed between November 26 and 28. The explosion would occur in the Beneath the Stars salon -definitely not in any other location- where some 850 persons are located. The device should detonate between 11 and 12 pm: at the peak of the nightclub show.

A suitable period of time between the device being planted and its detonation should be given to provide a means of escape without detection. (Remember that another device was to be placed in a Varadero Hotel). If I were to be captured, I was on no account to make any allusion to my CANF contacts.

On instructions from my CANF chiefs, I travelled to Guatemala on November 22, 1994 and stayed at the Camino Real Hotel in the capital city’s zone 10. There, I received detailed training in explosives’ management from none other than Luis Posada Carriles and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, both currently detained in Panama for planning an attempt on the life of Fidel Castro during the 10th Ibero-American Summit.

After returning to Havana with the explosives on November 25, everything was clear to us:

. The supposed noise bomb was in fact a 450-gram charge of the powerful C4 explosive.

. If it had exploded, given its power and characteristics, it would have led to the death of some 100 persons, and many more would have been wounded and mutilated.

. It would have made a strong impact on the increasing tourist flow to Cuba, the real purpose of such a sinister plan.

Once again, with various other anonymous State Security combatants, it was my honorable role to safeguard the lives of Cubans and foreigners, the innocent victims of the obsessive hatred of the Miami terrorists. The Tropicana was once again to be the innocent victim, with death threatening it once more.

When our people believed that the enemy had grown tired of damaging their tranquillity, another piece of news caught everyone by surprise: on April 26, 2002, Ihosvany Suris de la Torre, Máximo Pradera Valdés and Santiago Padrón Quintero, all of Cuban origin, were captured on the island. They had come from Miami, financed by the CANF, with one idea: to mount another attack on Tropicana cabaret.

These three attempts at terrorist aggression against a Cuban tourism installation are not fortuitous or isolated actions. They are part of a terrorist wave against Cuba developed over more than 40 years, with the objective of destroying the Revolution. At the end of the day, they are only three incidents that have been made public. Others are still held in deepest secret and yet others, those to come, will receive the same response from our people.

SOME FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

What I have outlined in this article is no secret to anyone. Much information has been circulated in that context and various media have given it ample coverage.

However, certain later investigations have allowed me to define exactly the damage to Cuba and the world as the result of such actions.

On each of the dates when the potential sabotage operation existed, approximately 850 persons were attending the show nightly. With the addition of the 300-plus persons who work there, the blast would have endangered the lives of more than 1,000 innocent citizens.

Based on studies into the kind of tourists that visit Tropicana, it is known that on the days in question, US, Canadian, Mexican, Argentine, Uruguayan, Italian, British, Swiss, French, Russian, Belgian and German citizens were there, as well as fewer persons from other nations. All of them, whatever their nationality or ideology, could have been killed for the sole crime of having visited Cuba.

Independently of the fact that the United States has received ample information on these planned acts of terrorism, the government of that country has never brought those responsible to trial. They are walking the streets of Miami in total impunity and have even been photographed with the president of that country who has promised them to do away with Cuba.

Are these potential victims somehow different to those savagely killed on September 11? Is it that these terrorists are not guilty? Or is this what they call “fighting for the freedom of Cuba?”

Percy Francisco Alvarado Godoy

Guatemalan writer.