[The following extraordinary document, issued May 1999 for submission to the civil and administrative court of law at the Provincial People's Court in Havana, presents the historical record of U.S. government crimes against the Cuban Revolution. Virtually unreported in the U.S. news media, it deserves wide circulation. We present it unedited except for minor format changes such as the emphasizing (by bold type) of key points of each charge. - SeeingRed]

Attorney Juan Mendoza Diaz, attorney Leonardo B.Perez Gallardo, attorney Magaly Iserne Carrillo and attorney Ivonne Perez Gutierrez, on behalf of and representing the following social and mass organizations from the Republic of Cuba comprising almost all of the population in the country:
Central Trade Union of Cuba (CTC), represented by worker Pedro Ross Leal, a Social Sciences major and Secretary General of the organization;
National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) represented by farmer Orlando Lugo Fonte, a Social Sciences major and chairman of the organization; Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), represented by Chemical Engineer Vilma Espin Guillois, president of the organization;
Federation of University Students (FEU), represented by Carlos Manuel Valenciaga Diaz, recently graduated from "Enrique Jose Varona" Higher Pedagogical Institute, leader of the organization;
Federation of Middle-level Education Students (FEEM), represented by Yurima Blanco Garcia, a senior student at "Amadeo Roldan" Provincial Music School, leader of the organization;
"Jose Marti" Children's Organization, represented by Niurka Dumenigo Garcia, a Social Communication major, leader of the organization's National Board; Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), represented by Juan Contino Aslan, an accountancy major and national coordinator of the organization;
Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC), represented by Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, president of the organization;

Hereby, by deed we appear and according to rule we say: That, we have come to institute a demand against the Government of the United States of America in Ordinary Proceeding on Compensation for Damages. That, this demand is based on the following:

FACTS

FIRST: That, the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, 1959 meant for the people of Cuba --for the first time in its long history of struggles-- the conquest of true independence and sovereignty, with a death toll of about 20,000 people who perished in direct and heroic combat against the forces of a military dictatorship trained, equipped and advised by the United States government.

The revolutionary victory in Cuba was one of the most humiliating political defeats the United States sustained after it became a great imperialist power. This determined that the historic dispute between the two nations would enter a new and more acute stage of confrontation characterized by the implementation of a brutal policy of hostility and all sorts of aggressions emanating from the United States and aimed at the destruction of the Cuban Revolution, the recapture of the country and the return to the neocolonial domination system that it had imposed on Cuba for over a century and which it definitely lost over 40 years ago.

The war unleashed by the United States against the Cuban Revolution, conceived as a state policy, has been historically proven and can be fully confirmed by multiple information released in that country as of late showing a number of political, military, economic, biologic, diplomatic, psychological, propagandist and spying actions; the execution of acts of terrorism and sabotage; the organization and logistic support of armed bandits and clandestine groups of mercenaries; the encouragement of defection and migration and the attempts at the physical elimination of the leaders of the Cuban revolutionary process.

All this has been exposed in very significant public statements made by senior officials of the U.S. government as well as in the countless and irrefutable evidences accumulated by the Cuban authorities. Also, numerous declassified secret documents are particularly eloquent and although not all have been released those that already have suffice to fairly prove the grounds for this claim.

One of the documents annexed in confirmation of the events described is the already declassified "Program of Covert Actions against the Castro Regime" approved on March 17, 1960 by United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The second, entitled the Cuban project and introduced on January 18, 1962 by Brigade General Edward Landsdale to the highest echelons of the United States government and the National Security Council Special Group-Augmented contains the list of 32 covert actions to be carried out by the agencies and departments taking part in the so-called Operation Mongoose.

Every hostile and aggressive action conducted by the United States government against Cuba from the very triumph of the Revolution up to the present have caused enormous material and human losses and incalculable suffering to the people of this country as well as hardships resulting from the shortage of medication, food and other indispensable means of life which we deserve and have the right to obtain with our honest labor.

Likewise, the political and ideological subversion which resulted in a continual, extensive and unjustified distress endured by all the people has posed constant dangers and caused damages characterized by their pervasive presence and almost immeasurable scope. This has jeopardized an accurate assessment which we are not including this time for the purpose of this demand in order to strictly limit ourselves to the content of the restitution for moral damages as prescribed by the Cuban Civil Code presently in force, although we do not renounce our right to do it in due course.

Pursuant to international practice, a State is responsible for the damages caused by its behavior and actions --in legislative, as well as, in administrative and judicial terms-- by its agents and officials, and even for the actions of each country's natural persons, if the corresponding authorities in said State would avoid taking preventive or suppressive measures. Thus, it is its duty to compensate for such damages in compliance with what is universally rated as civil liability.

Accordingly, the United States of America, as a State represented by its government, is accountable for the damages caused to Cuban natural persons and legal entities due to the unlawful actions undertaken by its agencies, departments, representatives, officials or the Government itself.

SECOND: That, the recent declassification in the United States of a report produced by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick on October 1961, with a review of the reasons for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion --as it is called in America-- has revealed that the covert operations organized in Washington against Cuba began in the summer of 1959, a few weeks after the adoption of the Land Reform Law on May 17, that year.

In the month of October, President Eisenhower approved a program proposed by the Department of State and the CIA to undertake covert actions against Cuba, including air and naval pirate attacks and the promotion of, and direct support to, counter-revolutionary groups inside Cuba. According to the document, the operations were to have succeeded in making the overthrow of the revolutionary regime look like the result of its own mistakes.

Those days saw the beginning of a campaign of flights over Cuban territory by small aircraft coming from the United States with such missions as the infiltration of agents, weapons and other equipment and the realization of acts of sabotage, bombings and other acts of terrorism.

On October 11, 1959, a plane dropped two incendiary bombs on the Niagara sugar mill in Pinar del Rio province. On October 19, another two bombs were hurled from the air over the Punta Alegre sugar mill in Camagüey province. On October 21, a twin-engines aircraft machine-gunned the city of Havana, killing several people and injuring dozens while another light aircraft dropped subversive propaganda. On October 22, a passenger train was machine-gunned in Las Villas province. On October 26, two light aircraft attacked both the Niagara and Violeta sugar mills.

From the very month of January 1960, while that year's sugar harvest was in full swing, the number of flights over sugar-cane plantations multiplied. On January 12 alone, 500,000 arrobas [1 arroba equals 25 pounds] of sugar cane were set on fire from the air in Havana province. On January 30, over 50,000 arrobas were lost at the Chaparra sugar mill in the former province of Oriente and, on February 1st , more than 100,000 arrobas were set alight in Matanzas province.

Still, other air attacks would follow: on January 21st, a plane dropped four 100-pound bombs over the urban areas of Cojimar and Regla, in the nation's capital. On February 7,1960, a light plane set afire 1.5 million arrobas of sugar cane in the Violeta, Florida, Cespedes and Estrella sugar mills in Camagüey province.

On February 18, a plane that was bombing the España sugar mill in Matanzas province was destroyed in mid air by one of its own bombs. The pilot was identified as Robert Ellis Frost, an American citizen. The flight card registered the plane's departure from Tamiami airport in Florida. Other documents found on the corpse revealed that on three previous occasions the pilot had taken part in similar flights over Cuba.

On February 23, several light aircraft sprayed incendiary capsules over the Washington and Ulacia sugar mills in the former province of Las Villas, as well as over Manguito in Matanzas province. On March 8, another light aircraft dropped inflammable substances over the area of San Cristobal and set alight more than 250,000 arrobas of sugar cane.

At that stage, along with the bombing, strafing and burning missions, there were successive flights over Havana and almost every other province in the country with the aim of spreading subversive propaganda. Dozens of such flights were recorded just in the first three months of 1961. In the aforementioned report by Lyman Kirkpatrick on the Bay of Pigs invasion, it was stated that "at the time of the invasion, 12 million pounds of leaflets had been dropped over Cuba", leaflets containing counter-revolutionary propaganda. In his report, the high-ranking CIA officer described the steps that had been taken from August 1959 by a paramilitary group from that institution.

This is but an example. The covert war against Cuba had begun, with high intensity, in the year 1959 itself. An infinite number of hostile and aggressive actions, impossible to list in detail, would follow in the coming years.

The Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency recognized that "from January 1960, when it had 40 people, the branch expanded to 588 by April 16, 1961, becoming one of the largest branches in the Clandestine Services". He meant the CIA station in Miami which concentrated on activities against Cuba.

THIRD: That, barely fifteen months after the revolutionary victory, armed banditry was planned and finally unleashed by the United States government, practically all over Cuba. It began in 1960 under the Republican Administration of President Eisenhower and lasted five years until 1965. It's main thrust would be on the Escambray, region in the former province of Las Villas, which now comprises the provinces of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus. A so-called front operated in that zone with columns, bands and a commanding post. Weeks before the Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion, 40,000 workers and students from the nation's capital, supported by local forces from the central region and peasants and farm workers from the Escambray and organized in militia battalions, surrounded and rendered helpless that bulwark which was to have co-operated with the invasion forces. Hundreds of bandits were captured and their number reduced to a minimum in those critical days.

Those bandits, organized by the CIA, had the support of the United States government which made the greatest efforts and resorted to every possible means to supply them with weaponry, ammunition, explosives, communication equipment and general logistics. To this end, the U.S. government used different routes by air, by sea and even via diplomatic channels through the United States embassy in Havana, until relations were severed at the beginning of 1961.

In this respect, the previously mentioned report by the CIA Inspector General explicitly recognized the logistical support provided by that institution to the mercenary bands. One example is the so-called Operation Silence, which consisted of the United States Central Intelligence Agency carrying out twelve air operations between September 1960 and March 1961 in order to supply the bandits with arms, ammunition, explosives and other equipment. About such operation the author of the report stated: "In all, about 151,000 pounds of arms, ammunition and equipment were transported by air."

On September 29, 1960, a four-engines plane dropped a cache of weapons over the Escambray mountains, near the Hanabanilla waterfall. On November 7, a plane dropped another cache of arms over the area of Boca Chica, near El Condado village on the Escambray mountain range. On December 31st, another package was dropped over the area known as Pinalillo, between Sagua and La Mulata, in Cabañas in Pinar del Rio province. On January 6, 1961, an aircraft dropped twenty parachutes with arms, ammunition, explosives and communication equipment between El Condado and Magua, in Trinidad, Las Villas province. On January 7, the following day, an aircraft dropped American weapons between Cabañas and Bahia Honda, Pinar del Rio.

On February 6, a plane dropped thirty parachutes with arms, ammunition, explosives, communication equipment and food over the area of Santa Lucia in Cabaiguan, Las Villas province. On February 13, twenty other parachutes were dropped from a plane over the area of El Naranjo, in Cumanayagua, Las Villas. On February 17, a plane dropped thirteen parachutes between San Blas and Circuito Sur, near La Sierrita, Las Villas. On March 3, a plane dropped two cache of arms, ammunition and explosives in the areas of El Mamey and Charco Azul, both in Las Villas province. On March 29, there was another drop of arms and supplies over the Jupiter farm in Artemisa municipality, Pinar del Rio province. In other words, a total of more than 70 tons of weapons were sent by air in that period.

Significant pockets of subversion were created in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, Camagüey and Oriente. It is worth emphasizing that the first group was organized in the province of Pinar del Rio, led by Luis Lara Crespo, a former corporal with Batista's tyranny army who was a fugitive from the revolutionary justice for his crimes. It was in that same province, that Rebel Army private Manuel Cordero Rodriguez was killed in action against a group of bandits commanded by the American citizens Austin Young and Peter John Lambton. These two men were captured along with the rest of the bandits, and their weapons --part of those supplied by the United States-- were seized. These mercenary groups were to be succeeded by others. It is equally useful to highlight those headed by Pedro Roman Trujillo in the Escambray region and Olegario Charlot Pileta in the former province of Oriente, both were also among the first groups created in those provinces.

Faced with these expressions of growing aggressiveness orchestrated by the U.S. government, the Cuban people --through their defense and security institutions and revolutionary organizations-- were actively and resolutely mobilized. They dealt sensitive blows to the enemy and captured, dispersed or dismantled most of the bandits thus, writing pages of heroism and sacrifice with their own blood and the loss of many precious lives.

This situation was not correctly assessed by the CIA which assumed that the mercenary invasion would have the support of these forces. However, after the historic defeat it persisted in its plans of a dirty war. Under the Administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the CIA multiplied its efforts to that end, so there was a resurgence of bands which forced our people to pay an additional toll in blood and lives.

The unquestionable historical truth about these events and the cynicism and lies that have invariably accompanied all American actions against Cuba can be found in the original documents of the time, produced by those who planned the policy of aggression and subversion against Cuba from within that country. In this token, it may be illustrative for this Court that, on March 17, 1960, at a meeting attended by Vice-President Richard Nixon, Secretary of State Christian Herter, Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Anderson, Assistant Secretary of Defense John N. Irwin, Under Secretary of State Livingston T. Merchant, Assistant Secretary of State Roy Rubottom, Admiral Arleigh Burke of the Joint Chief of Staff, CIA Director Allen Dulles, the high-ranking CIA officers Richard Bissell and J.C. King and the White House officials Gordon Gray and General Andrew J. Goodpaster, the United States President approved the so-called "Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime" proposed by the CIA.

Among other things, that program enabled the creation of a secret intelligence and action organization within Cuba, for which the CIA allocated the necessary funds. In a recently declassified memorandum on that meeting, General Goodpaster noted: "The President said that he knows of no better plan for dealing with this situation. The great problem is leakage and breach of security. Everyone must be prepared to swear that he [Eisenhower] has not heard of it. He said our hand should not show in anything that is done." One of the most impressive human works of social justice in our country has been done in the field of education. This has been highly appreciated by our people and enjoys admiration and respect in the world. The literacy campaign was undertaken in 1961. Almost 100,000 students joined it and went to the most remote places on our island to teach reading and writing to the people there. At the same time, the CIA directed its bandits to sow terror in order to sabotage the campaign. Those bandits carried out criminal actions against adolescents and youths working as teachers and against illiterate adults learning to read and write.

On January 5, 1961, voluntary teacher Conrado Benitez Garcia and peasant Eliodoro Rodriguez Linares were murdered in Las Tinajitas, San Ambrosio, Trinidad municipality in Sancti Spiritus. The participants in this action were bandits Macario Quintana Carrero, Julio Emilio Carretero Escajadillo and Ruperto Ulacia Montelier, members of Osvaldo Ramirez Garcia's band. On October 3, that same year, teacher Delfin Sen Cedre was murdered at Novoa farm, Quemado de Güines, in Las Villas by Margarito Lanza Florez's band. On November 26, 1961, the young literacy tutor Manuel Ascunce Domenech and peasant Pedro Lantigua Ortega were likewise murdered by bandits Julio Emilio Carretero, Pedro Gonzalez Sanchez and Braulio Amador Quesada, at Palmarito farm, Rio Ay, Trinidad municipality, in Sancti Spiritus.

Also children and adolescents became the victims of those bandits intent on sowing terror among peasants and farm workers in Cuba. Such is the case, among others, of Yolanda and Fermin Rodriguez Diaz, aged 11 and 13 years. They were murdered on January 24, 1963 at La Candelaria farm, Bolondron, Pedro Betancourt municipality, in Matanzas province, by Juan Jose Catala Coste's band, operating in the south of that province. It is also worthwhile mentioning for its cruelty, the event of March 13, 1962 in San Nicolas de Bari, Havana province, where a youngster named Andres Rojas Acosta was hanged with the very rope he was using to tie up a pig. This crime was committed by bandits led by mercenary Waldemar Hernandez. Another event occurred on October 10, 1960 on the road from Madruga to Ceiba Mocha when Gerardo Fundora's band shot at a passing jeep killing 22-months-old Reynaldo Nuñez-Bueno Machado. The baby's mother was also a victim of this action. The mercenary bands, in a desperate attempt to succeed in their task, retaliated against the civilian population in the areas where they operated. An example of this is the murder of 10-year-old Albinio Sanchez Rodriguez on March 4, 1963. He was killed by Delio Almeida's band as a reaction for a previous attack by the National Revolutionary Militias.

Banditry was definitively removed from Cuba in 1965, when the last band was found out and defeated. That band was led by Juan Alberto Martinez Andrade, then leader of the so-called Camagüey Front.

Between 1959 and 1965, a total of 299 bands, with 3,995 mercenaries operated throughout the national territory in the service of the U.S. government. The number of casualties in that struggle, regular troops and militiamen combined taking part in the operations against the bandits, as well as, people murdered by the bandits whose death it has been possible to document, were as high as 549. Also, a considerable amount of people were injured whose number it has not been possible to accurately determine 34 years later, when this demand was prepared. However, there are still 200 survivors incapacitated as a result of those criminal plans. Not all the victims were among the revolutionary combatants fighting the bandits. Many civilians who had nothing to do with the military activities also died, victims of the crimes committed by the bands imposed from abroad.

The dirty war, that costly and bloody form of aggression created by the U.S. government, was definitely and completely defeated by the Cuban people, totally uprooted, and the CIA could never again organize a single band. We have attached to this demand the corresponding certificates of the 549 people who have so far been registered as dead due to that criminal action against our people, as well as, a detailed list of all those currently incapacitated due to injuries sustained in the period described; these are the documents marked with the numbers 9 and 10, respectively.