Cuba blocks US ticker with flags of mourning
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-07 10:15

Cuba hoisted 138 huge black flags bearing a white star in front of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana on Monday, blocking an electronic sign streaming news and political messages.

After the flags were raised, Cubans began a 24-hour vigil in front of the mission, during which they vowed to hold huge posters with the faces of victims of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, a string of Havana hotel blasts in the late 1990s, and other events they blame on the United States.

Cuban students hold photographs of victims from events such as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the bombing of a Cuban plane while standing underneath black flags outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana February 6, 2006. [Reuters]

Cuban President Fidel Castro sent hundreds of thousands of Cuban marchers past the mission earlier this month soon after the sign was turned on.

The ticker flashes news headlines and also has included quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement in Poland.

Castro had promised to respond to the sign, which he termed a "gross provocation aimed at rupturing fragile relations" in a speech earlier this month.

Huge flag poles with 138 black flags, each centered with a white star, block an electronic sign beaming messages from the facade of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana February 6, 2006. [Reuters]

The two governments, bitter enemies since Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution, do not have formal diplomatic relations and are represented by interests offices opened in each other's capital during the Carter administration.

"The flags represent the nation's mourning for over 3,400 Cubans killed by U.S.-sponsored violence since the 1959 revolution," said Carlos Alberto Cremata, son of the co-pilot of a Cuban airliner downed by a bomb blast, killing all 73 aboard.

"They are white stars over a black background, representing the light of a people that are in pain and mourning for their children and families," Cremata said at the flag-raising ceremony, attended by Castro, other leaders, families of the dead and selected young people.

Cuban President Fidel Castro (R) attends an event outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana February 6, 2006.[Reuters]

The leader, who turns 80 in August, was dressed in his trademark military fatigues and green cap, but did not speak. Others in attendance wore black T-shirts.

The flags and ticker across the 25 windows of the fifth floor of the Interests Section on Havana's Malecon waterfront are the latest salvos in a decades-old propaganda war between Washington and Havana.

Last year, Cuba set up billboards with pictures of abused Iraqi prisoners at the site in reply to a Christmas decoration put up by the U.S. mission displaying the number of dissidents imprisoned in a political crackdown in Cuba.

Monday's event included accusations the United States had supported Cuban-American terrorism over the years and sheltered terrorists operating out of south Florida, in particular former CIA operatives Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, accused by Cuba of being behind the plane bombing, among other attacks.

Bosch lives in Miami, having received a pardon from other crimes by George W. Bush's father during his presidency.

Cremata, and other speakers on Monday, denounced President George W. Bush's government for wanting to free Posada, who has been held by the United States since May for illegally entering the country.

U.S. authorities have rejected a Venezuelan extradition request for Posada, who escaped from a Caracas jail in 1985.