Watch the video of the Molotov-cocktail bombing of Cuba’s embassy in Washington
Cuban authorities have released a video they say shows the moment an unidentified person threw two Molotov cocktails at the country’s embassy in Washington on Sunday evening.
Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, published the video on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: “The moment when the terrorist stands in front of the Cuban embassy in the United States, lights up the Molotov cocktails & hurls them against the façade of the mission.”
He said the footage came from one of the embassy’s surveillance cameras and has been handed to U.S. authorities.
The blurred images appear to show a person dressed in dark clothes, face apparently covered, squatting to light up two objects on the embassy’s sidewalk as a pedestrian passes by. Seconds later, the person throws the flaming objects at the building and walks away.
The video time stamp shows the attack happened a few minutes before 8 p.m. on Sunday.
No one was hurt in the incident, Cuban authorities said, and the building was not damaged, according to photos released by the Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Shortly after the incident, Cuban authorities labeled it a “terrorist” attack and demanded “action” from U.S. authorities. The U.S. State Department provides security for the embassy and U.S. Secret Service police were called to collect evidence at the embassy, Cuban Ambassador Lianys Torres, said.
Torres told Cuban news agency Prensa Latina that the incident shows “a permissive behavior of the law enforcement authorities of this country,” recalling an earlier attack in 2020 when a man born in Cuba who was struggling with mental health problems opened fire at the embassy with an AK-47 assault rifle.
At the time, Rodríguez called on U.S. authorities to investigate the case as a terrorist act. But the man, named Alexander Alazo, faced other charges, including attacking an official premise using a deadly weapon and damaging the property of a foreign government in the United States.
U.S. authorities are investigating the latest incident, and President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, condemned the attack.
The attack on Sunday happened just hours after the country’s leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, had returned to Havana from New York, where he had attended the United Nations General Assembly and other events.
Díaz-Canel used the incident to take a jab at the United States and its decision to include Cuba on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
“In addition to investigating and punishing the culprit, American authorities could be fair and give those who sponsor these acts the place they deserve on the list of sponsors of terrorism,” he said. “Also, for justice, leave Cuba off that list. #NoToTerrorism.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Watch the video of the Molotov-cocktail bombing of Cuba’s embassy in Washington."