Gunman With Assault Rifle Opens Fire On CUBA Embassy in Washington D.C.
Credit: Wikipedia Commons / Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in Washington, D.C.
Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
A man who popped off nearly three dozen rounds from an AK-47 rifle at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C. last Thursday claimed he heard “voices in his head.” Alexander Alazo, 42, of Aubrey, Texas, was arrested opening fire at about 2 a.m. outside the embassy located in the 2600 block of 16th Street in Northwest D.C., near the Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights areas. No embassy personnel were hurt but that the gunfire damaged the building. According to media reports, Alazo told investigators he was born in Cuba and served in the Cuban Army, then moved to Mexico in 2003 before claiming political asylum in the U.S. a few years later. He claimed Cuban organized crime figures were after him and he drove to the Cuban embassy “to get them before they got him.”
Cuba Says Attack on Embassy A “Terrorist” Act
Ambassador of Cuba to the U.S.A.: “They will not be able to destroy our symbols”
“We have, besides the testimony of our co-workers, the video of the surveillance cameras that we shared with the secret service. In this video you can see clearly the offense against our national symbol and the satisfaction of the individual in holding the American flag while he was yelling. Neither the State Department nor the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, have formally and publicly condemned the event.”
-Cuban Ambassador to the United States, José Ramón Cabaña
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said in a statement published online that the attack, which he labeled a “terrorist act,” has been “encouraged” by the “growing hostile rhetoric” of the Trump administration against the island.
#US State Dept. and its Sec. Pompeo keep complicit silence about terrorist act vs Cuban embassy in #WashingtonDC
However multiples voices in #US and elsewhere in the world are raised to condemn this serious attack, expressing their solidarity and support. #Cuba appreciates that. pic.twitter.com/loLP1Uu8xN
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) May 4, 2020
