It has been 44 years since the Cuban people were shaken by the sad news of the attack on October 6th, 1976, the country lost those champions who were traveling on the CU-455 aircraft of Cuban Airlines, and whom Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch deprived of other great achievements and of life itself.
Among the 73 victims of the well-known Barbados sabotage was the National Youth Fencing Team, which was returning to Cuba after winning all the gold medals disputed in a regional contest in Caracas. Two women from Camagüey were among the champions, Inés Luaces and Milagro Peláez.
Inés Luaces, was a stomatology student born in Camagüey, she was 21 years old at the time of the disaster, she also brought medals and glory to her homeland.
Those sad memories still live in the memory of many athletes of that time, such as Juana Cristiá López.
Juanita, as this former athlete of the National Archery Team is known, makes an analogy with her active life for 15 years and comments how happy it was for any athlete to train every day, prepare for a competition and enjoy any medal or recognition, no matter how simple; She puts herself in the place of Inés Luaces, the one that was closest to her, and sighs at the thought that the terrorists did not let her enjoy the taste of their golden medals.
According to what she told me, a relative of Inés was a commissioner of Shooting, although he did not have much contact with her because she spent most of her time training in the Capital, the commissioner spoke of the discipline and talent with which the fencer was already showing.
When her name was revealed among the victims of the sabotage, she followed each news story and the heartbreaking images of the event on television, as the funeral services were held in Havana.
Juanita continued with her sports career and in communist-bloc nations she won gold, silver and bronze medals. She thinks that like her, the fencers of the Cuban team who died in the Barbados sabotage, would have brought other glories to Cuban sport, but the cruelty of the mercenaries paid by the Government of the North executed a cruel lunge to our people, who after 44 years of the crime, do not forget the pain and the injustice; while honoring the memory of those children of Cuba.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
