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تضامنًا مع حق الشعب الفلسطيني لا للإبادة الجماعية في غزة .... لا لقتل المدنيين لا لاستهداف المستشفيات والمدارس .... لا للتضليل والكيل بمكيالين أوقفوا الحرب .... وانشروا السلام العادل والشامل |
In solidarity with the rights of the Palestinian people, no to genocide in Gaza ...no to killing civilians , no to targeting hospitals and schools ...no to misleading and double standards. Stop the war ... and spread just and |
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Sierra Aranzazu
Spanish merchant shipThe Sierra Aránzazu was a Spanish-flagged merchant ship . On Sunday, September 13, 1964, it suffered a terrorist attack while sailing about 130 km northeast of the island of Cuba through the waters of the Bahamas channel perpetrated by the Revolutionary Recovery Movement (MRR), of an anti-Castro nature and financed and trained by the CIA , and which cost the lives of three of the crew members, including the captain. [ 1 ]
General characteristics | |
---|---|
Record | |
Banderas | |
Sierra Aranzazu | |
Shipyard | Cork Shipyards, in Santander (Spain) |
Type | boat |
Operator | Maritime of the North (1964-1983) National Fisheries and Port Bank (1983) |
Port of registry | Port of Santander , Port of Bilbao |
Booted | 1964 |
Low | 1983 |
Destination | Scrapped |
Deadweight tonnage | 2984 t |
Length | 82,5 m |
Manga | 12,13 m |
Strut | 7,05 m |
Propulsion | 1 engine diesel Werkspoor |
Power | 1850 BHP |
Speed | 12 knots |
Autonomy | 4481 miles |
Crew | 20 |
Call sign | BLAME |
[ edit data on Wikidata ] |
History
editThe Sierra Aránzazu was the second of three cargo ships built by the Corcho Shipyards of Santander , after the Sierra Andia , the first of the series. It was launched in 1964 for the shipping company Marítima del Norte, which initially registered it in the Port of Santander and then in the Port of Bilbao . [ 2 ]
Terrorist attack
editOn September 13, 1964, the Sierra Aránzazu was sailing on its fourth trip through the Bahamas Channel in the Caribbean Sea about one hundred miles northeast of Guantanamo , bound for the port of Havana . It was carrying a varied cargo of food, textiles, agricultural material, toys, and other goods. The government of dictator Francisco Franco of Spain maintained open trade with Cuba despite the United States embargo and criticism from anti-Castro movements . [ 3 ] The shipping company Compañía del Norte, owner of the Sierra Aránzazu , began to exploit commercial activity between the two countries in the early years of the Cuban Revolution . [ 1 ]
At around 13:00 hours on 13 September, [ 3 ] a United States Coast Guard maritime patrol aircraft flew over the Spanish freighter several times at very low altitude.
Several hours later, at 19:50, a launch approached the freighter from the stern, illuminating its license plate. Just 10 minutes later, two launches intercepted the Sierra Aránzazu from each side , initiating the attack with machine gun fire and some 20 and 40 mm cannon fire. [ 3 ] In just 4 minutes, the bridge and crew quarters were attacked, [ 3 ] in an attempt to massacre the freighter's crew and prevent any distress call. The freighter suffered a fire in a diesel tank and the captain, seriously wounded by the shots, ordered an emergency call to be made and abandon ship. [ 3 ] The crew's attempt to launch one of the two lifeboats was answered by the attackers with machine gun fire, which caused serious injuries to one crew member. [ 1 ]
The twenty crew members of the Sierra Aránzazu finally managed to abandon ship and reach safety. The attackers illuminated the boat as it moved away but did not attack it. Instead, the Sierra Aránzazu , with no one on board, was attacked for another 10 minutes. [ 3 ] The survivors remained in the open for twelve hours until they were rescued, during which time the captain and the third engineer died from serious injuries. On two occasions during the course of the night a boat was heard approaching, but the survivors, due to the darkness, were unable to determine its nature. [ 3 ]
The Dutch freighter P. G. Thulin , which had approached the Sierra Aránzazu after seeing the flames of the fire still affecting the Spanish freighter, began the search efforts at first light in the morning and in coordination with a plane of the United States Coast Guard. The rescue carried out by the P. G. Thulin occurred around 10 in the morning after the reconnaissance plane indicated the position of the boat. [ 3 ]
The second officer died on board the rescue vessel from his injuries. The survivors, including several wounded, and the bodies of the deceased were landed at Matthew Town ( Inagua , Bahamas ). Within a few hours they were taken to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base by a United States Navy aircraft and on the 15th to Puerto Rico , from where they were finally repatriated to Spain. [ 3 ] [ 1 ]
Victims
editAs a result of the terrorist attack, three crew members of the Sierra Aránzazu were killed:
- Pedro Ibargurengoitia García (b. 1922 in Górliz , Vizcaya), captain of the Sierra Aránzazu , married with two children. Employee of the Maritime Authority of the North since 1958.
- Francisco Javier Cabello Fernández (b. 1934), second officer. Single. He had been working for the Northern Maritime Company for a few months.
- José Vaquero Iglesias (born in 1941 in Villablino , León) third engineer. Single.
Authorship
editInitially, the Spanish government issued a note of protest to the United States government , believing that the attack took place in waters controlled militarily by forces of that country. [ 4 ] In Spain, upon learning of the attack, protests took place in front of the United States embassy in Madrid and at the consulate in Vigo . Despite the initial strong condemnation and the commitment of Dean Rusk , Secretary of State of the United States , to investigate what happened, [ 4 ] at the diplomatic level the matter quickly fell into oblivion without clarifying the responsibility for the attack. [ 1 ] At first, the anti-Castro armed groups spread the lie that Castro forces had been responsible for the attack, although later that version was compromised when it became known that forces of the Revolutionary Recovery Movement had participated. [ 1 ]
The attack was authorized from Nicaragua by Cuban CIA agent Félix Rodríguez , [ 5 ] who later blamed it on a "mistake." According to his version, the attackers mistook the Sierra Aránzazu for the Sierra Maestra , the flagship of the Cuban Navy. [ 6 ]
Post activity
editOn 14 September, four torpedo boats of the Revolutionary Navy (of Cuba) found the Sierra Aránzazu still on fire. They relayed their position ( 21°40′N 74°08′W / 21.667, -74.133 ). [ 7 ]
At dawn on September 15, the tug Diez de Octubre , which had set sail from Santiago de Cuba with the mission of extinguishing the fire and towing the freighter towards the Cuban coast, approached the Sierra Aránzazu , which continued to burn. [ 8 ] Initially its work was hampered by the USCGC Reliance , a United States Coast Guard patrol boat that was also on the scene. [ 3 ] Two MIG-17 fighter planes of the Revolutionary Air Force flew over the freighter, dove on the ships in salute, and returned to their base in Holguín . [ 8 ] Water cannons were put into operation from the tug to put out the flames. Everything possible was done to drag it to the coast (130 km away), while continuing to fight the fire. Later another Cuban tug, the Macabí , joined the rescue . Heavy waves hampered operations and the towing cables broke twice, but the men in charge of the operation continued forward. [ 8 ]
At ten o'clock in the morning on September 16, after a hazardous voyage, the Sierra Aránzazu, with a list to port of about 10 to 15 degrees, was anchored in Nipe Bay , very close to the coast, 3 km from the sugar loading dock at Preston, 10 km from the port of Antilla (in Holguín). The efforts to rescue the ship and the cargo immediately continued. The first task was to finally put out the fire, working in the midst of smoke and heat. The battle took long days, and was so difficult and risky that several men were injured by burns and others suffered from suffocation. [ 8 ]
On September 19, 1964, in Madrid (Spain), a thousand people gathered in front of the American embassy , chanting "Murderers!" and "Cuba yes, Yankees no!". [ 9 ]
The ship was left in very bad condition and sunk by the large amount of water that had entered. Around 800 bullet holes were counted, and some 30 and 40 mm projectiles used in the attack were also recovered. [ 3 ] After salvage work, which lasted sixteen days, [ 10 ] it was successfully refloated.
Thanks to the floating crane barge Bohemia, with a capacity of 30 tons, which arrived from Havana towed by the Cristino Naranjo, the hatches of the holds could be opened in order to bail out the water and remove the remains of the cargo, both the usable one (rather scarce, around 20 percent of the total) and the one that was completely lost. It was possible to save part of the dolls (children's toys), the fabrics, the cognac and some garlic, and all the agricultural material. On Wednesday, September 30, 1964, the salvage work was completed. [ 10 ] The Cuban ferry Finisterre [ 10 ] began its transfer to Spain. Due to the belligerent attitude of the American Government, Fidel Castro asked the Soviet Government that a nuclear submarine escort the convoy to within a hundred miles of the island of Puerto Rico (which was invaded by the United States). [ 10 ]
The voyage was complicated by bad weather throughout the journey and by the low power of the tugboat. On board the Sierra Aránzazu were two men from the Finisterre who were in charge of keeping a generator provided by the Cuban government running. [ 10 ] They also took care of the night lighting, securing the tow and pumping out any water that entered the merchant ship. There was always permanent radio contact between the two ships, except for the occasional communication problem. [ 10 ] During the voyage they were flown over almost daily by American planes, which threatened to fly low. [ 10 ] Sometimes the Sierra Aránzazu was tilted forward, and sometimes towards the stern. They were many days of stumbling until on December 13, at five in the morning, the tow cable was cut and the Finisterre lost the Sierra Aránzazu. With no visibility, strong waves and heavy showers, the tugboat began the search, although without the help of the radar, which was out of order. It took three days to find the ship. [ 10 ]
On December 25, 1964, they arrived in Las Palmas (Canary Islands). At night, both ships docked at a dock in Puerto de La Luz next to the ocean liner Queen Mary . After several days of waiting for a final destination, where everything was one rumor after another, it was confirmed that it would be Santander. On January 5, 1965, in the middle of the trip to the Cantabrian capital, one of the sailors of the tugboat was seriously injured in the face. They found medical help in Corcubión , where they arrived on January 6 at 7:00 a.m. [ 10 ]
On January 9 at noon they arrived in Santander (Spain). [ 2 ] Cuba returned the Sierra Aránzazu to the Spanish shipping company without later claiming the cost of the transfer, as it would have been entitled to according to maritime law. The Castro government also immediately compensated the families of the three sailors killed by the CIA. [ 8 ] [ 11 ]
Later, the Spanish Government - under the power of the Franco dictatorship - sued the US Government, which forced the CIA to compensate Spain for the value of one million dollars [ 12 ] (which in 2015 would be equivalent to eight million dollars).
The repair of the Sierra Aránzazu took place in 1965 for a period of 7 months, in works carried out by the Astilleros de Santander, S. A. and with an approximate cost of 25 million pesetas . In 1967 it returned to the shipyards of Santander to be converted into a refrigerated vessel. [ 3 ]
In 1983, the Compañía Maritima del Norte sold the Sierra Aránzazu and its sister ship Sierra Andia to the Banco Nacional Pesquero y Portuario (of Mexico). In October 1983, the Sierra Aránzazu suffered a serious accident while anchored in Mazatlán as a result of the strong waves generated by Hurricane Tico . The collision with the breakwater of the port caused its sinking, which led to its eventual scrapping. [ 2 ]
References
edit- ↑ Jump to:a b c d e f Vaquero Iglesias, Tomás; Vaquero Iglesias, José Antonio (13 September 2014).«The tragedy of the Sierra Aránzazu, 50 years later». El País. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ↑Jump to:a b c «Marítima del Norte». buques.org. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ↑Jump to:a b c d e f g h i j k l Rodríguez Aguilar, Manuel (April 2010). Stories of the sea: the attack on the merchant ship Sierra Aránzazu 258. Revista General de la Marina. pp. 481-497. ISSN 0034-9569 . Archived fromthe originalon 17 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
- ↑ Jump to:a b «Anniversaries: 1964 Investigations into the attacked ship». Diario de Cádiz. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ↑ Anderson, 1997, p. 575.
- ↑ «Franco i Fidel» (in Catalan) .
- ^ Etcheverry Vázquez, Pedro (15 September 2014). «The attack on the merchant ship Sierra Aránzazu» . Granma . Retrieved 11 October 2014 .
- ↑Jump to:a b c d e Campelo, Patricia (2014):«We want this attack silenced by the United States to be known», article from September 29, 2014 in the newspaperPúblico(Madrid).
- ↑ Etcheverry Vázquez, Pedro (2014): «50 years after a terrorist act: the attack on the merchant ship Sierra Aránzazu» , article of September 15, 2014 in the newspaper Granma (Havana).
- ↑Jump to:a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Aguilar, Manuel (2008):«The attack on the merchant Sierra Aránzazu», article on the Grijalvo website (Madrid).
- ↑ Gorriti, I. (2014): «Fifty years since the anti-Castro attack on a Basque ship with three dead» , article from December 19, 2014 on the Mugalari website.
- ↑ «Sierra Aránzazu: CIA attack» , article from September 29, 2014 on the website Discovering Truths (Havana).
Literature
edit- Anderson , Jon Lee (1997). Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life . Editorial Anagrama . ISBN 978-84-339-2572-5 .
External links
edit- Page with photographs of the rescue of survivors of the attack in September 1964. ( in Dutch)
- Datos: Q18170773
Last edited 2 months ago by Jcabbe3
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