Cuba: hotel bombing kills Italian visitor
Italian businessperson Fabio di Celmo was killed on September 4 when a bomb exploded in Havana's exclusive Copacabana hotel. Two other bombs which exploded at the same time at the Triton and Chateau-Miramar hotels left no injuries.
Di Celmo, a resident of Canada, was at the bar on the first floor of the Copacabana when the bomb went off; he died almost instantly from a throat wound caused by a piece of flying glass.
The Cuban Interior Ministry issued a communiqué attributing the attacks to "terrorist activities organised, supplied and developed from the United States".
A leader of the Miami-based right-wing paramilitary group Alpha 66 said his organisation is not involved directly in the attacks, but that it supports the efforts to overthrow Cuban President Fidel Castro. The right-wing Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation said the bombings show a fierce internal struggle against Castro.
The latest attacks bring to nine the number of explosions at Cuban tourist sites over the past six months. The bombings are clearly designed to affect Cuba's growing tourist industry, which grossed US$1.38 billion in 1996.
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