This was reported by the Cuban chancellor, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who attributed the incident to an individual who threw two Molotov cocktails at the building. The Cuban regime denounced on Sunday night the carrying out of an alleged attack against the headquarters of its embassy in Washington.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who attributed the incident to an individual who threw two Molotov cocktails at the building, reported in his X account.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) indicated that no one was injured in the incident.
This evening, September 24, the Cuban Embassy in the United States was the target of a terrorist attack by an individual who threw two Molotov cocktails. There were no injuries to personnel. The details are precise”, Rodriguez Parrilla said. As of this writing, there has been no official statement from U.S. authorities, nor has the Cuban regime released security camera footage of the alleged attack.
This is the second violent attack against the diplomatic mission in Washington since April 2020. On that occasion, an individual fired an assault rifle at the headquarters, according to the Cuban regime’s chancellor. In a veiled allusion to their responsibility to protect the host country of the diplomatic legation, Rodriguez Parrilla claimed that anti-Cuban groups resort to terrorism when they feel impunity, something Cuba has repeatedly warned U.S. authorities about.
According to the official Cuban press, after the unfortunate incident, the international community has already begun to denounce the fact and express its solidarity with the Cuban people.
However, reactions in social networks of Cuban civil society show a majority of skepticism and disapproval for the information offered by Havana, with many coming to the opinion that it could be a suicide bombing perpetrated by the regime itself to push its political agenda in the face of the international community.
The attack occurred just as the delegation headed by the ruling Miguel Diaz-Canel was leaving US territory, after an intense week of events in front of the United Nations (UN) and with regime sympathizers in New York: an agenda that provoked the rejection of Cuban activists who demonstrated in front of the Permanent Mission of Cuba.
The 2020 attack
In late April 2020, a man was arrested after firing multiple shots with an assault rifle at the Cuban Embassy in the United States. The shooting occurred at approximately 2:10 a.m. near the Embassy, at 2600 and 16th Street NW, northwest of the city. Area police arrived at the site when they heard the first shots and within minutes detained the suspect, according to a report from the Washington DC Metropolitan Police sent to CiberCuba.
Although authorities did not identify the suspect in the preliminary information, the police statement indicated that the alleged assailant was Alexander Alazo Baró, 42, a resident of Aubrey, Texas.
“The suspect was immediately detained without further incident and the weapon was recovered. The Secret Service proceeded with the arrest and is continuing with the investigation of the case”, police spokeswoman Brianna Jordan told CiberCuba.
Alazo Baró fired 32 shots with an AK-47 rifle at the Cuban diplomatic headquarters before firing the weapon at the entrance to the building. When agents from the Washington Metropolitan Police and Secret Service proceeded to arrest him, he was enveloped in an American flag.
Two years later, in April 2022, the Cuban went behind bars in a protracted legal process in which he debated his mental competence to face the process against him and evaluate the plea bargain offered by the U.S. government.
The subject of Alazo Baró’s mental evaluation was the object of lengthy legal consideration and maneuvering by the prosecution and defense, and constituted the main obstacle to advancing the case to a final resolution.