Hijacking by Renegade Cubans Is Foiled

washington post
MEXICO CITY, May 3 -- Cuban police reportedly fought a gun battle Thursday with two renegade soldiers who tried to hijack a plane at Havana's José Martí International Airport.

An army officer who had been taken hostage was killed on the plane before the soldiers were captured, according to a statement issued to the Associated Press by Cuba's Interior Ministry. The ministry said the soldiers had seized control of a bus taking passengers to a plane waiting on the tarmac.

The would-be hijackers were among three recruits who escaped from a Cuban military base over the weekend after killing one soldier and wounding another, according to the statement. The third recruit was captured before the botched hijacking, the ministry said.

In its statement, the ministry blamed U.S. policies for encouraging Cubans to immigrate to the United States and said the incident was a result of Washington's tolerance of violence against Cuba.

The Cuban government had earlier identified the soldiers as Leandro Cerezo Sirut and Alain Forbus Lameru, both 19, and Yoan Torres Martínez, 21. It was unclear which of the soldiers, all three from the eastern province of Camaguey, were involved in the hijacking attempt.

The Cuban government portrayed Army Lt. Col. Victor Ibo Acuña Velázquez, who was killed during the foiled hijacking, as a hero.

"Despite being unarmed," the Interior Ministry statement read, "he heroically tried to prevent the commission of the terrorist act."

Rumors flew through Havana about the pre-dawn attack, but a resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said late Wednesday that it had not been mentioned in the state-run media.

In the 1970s, there was a rash of hijackings of U.S. planes by fugitives who wanted to be taken to Cuba. But there have been far fewer attempts to hijack planes in Cuba, where residents cannot legally buy guns.

"Having an armed attempt at hijacking is unusual," Dennis K. Hays, a former State Department coordinator for Cuban affairs, said in an interview from his Washington office.

In early 2003, two planes were hijacked in Cuba in separate incidents. One of the planes was hijacked by six knife-wielding men. In the other incident, Fidel Castro personally tried to negotiate with a man who was threatening to detonate a grenade. The Cuban president eventually let the plane fly to Florida. Once it was on the ground, 10 of the 27 passengers were granted political asylum.