STATEMENT FROM CUBAN WOMEN: "OUR PATIENCE HAS A LIMIT"

[Following are excerpts from an unofficial translation of the statement of the Federation of Cuban Women regarding the downing Feb. 25 of two planes flown by U.S.-based counter-revolutionaries after they violated Cuban airspace.]

One more time our small country has been a victim of terrorism. The overbearing and interfering actions of counter-revolutionary groups located in the territory of the United States, and with the tolerance and permissive attitude of that government, have violated our national sovereignty.

We Cuban women know very well the grief and pain that these assassin acts have signified. Throughout these many years these criminal actions have been repeated, often against the helpless population of our coasts, against our most important economic objectives.

We are conscious of the efforts that our government has made to avoid conflict that involves the loss of human life and the increase in tension. Sufficient evidence has been demonstrated of the government's capacity to alert and to patiently dissuade. The government of the United States has been repeatedly warned and threatened to stop the practices of the groups that arm and train themselves.

The patience of the citizens of our country has a limit. ...

What country of the world permits illegal violations of its national spaces: air, sea or land? Neither would the United States permit this. What are, then, the reasons for this dirty farce?

We Cuban women want peace, the relaxation of tensions, peaceful solutions to the conflicts-but more than anything, we want our national sovereignty and we reaffirm the right of our government to exercise it.

The Cuban Women's Federation calls on our friends in the world to rapidly take actions of solidarity and support to our country, our people, our women and our children, as an endorsement of the elementary right that we have to guarantee our integrity and national security.

National Secretariat

Cuban Women's Federation

[Translation made available by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.]

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