New York, May 2 (RHC)-- The Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)-Pastors for Peace demands that the U.S. government investigate the attack on the Cuban embassy in Washington, DC.
On its Twitter account, the New York-based organization published a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secret Service Director James Murray and Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham, among other government officials.
In the letter, IFCO's Executive Director Gail Walker stated that the group "condemns the cowardly terrorist attack of April 30th against the Cuban embassy in Washington D.C."
Embassy personnel were inside the building during the attack and we are all grateful that no one was injured as a result of this potentially fatal assault, she said.
Gail Walker said that Alexander Alazo, a resident of Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida opened fire on the building, and has been charged with assault with intent to kill, along with possession of an unregistered AK-47 rifle and a high-capacity power device.
At this point, it appears that Alazo acted alone, but his movements are reminiscent of the terrorist actions of like-minded people that resulted in the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean diplomat, and his colleague Ronni Moffit.
That crime was planned by two Cuban emigrants, José Dionisio Suárez Esquivel and Virgilio Paz Romero, the letter recalled, adding that the murder of young Cuban Carlos Muñiz Varela in Puerto Rico in 1979 has still not been solved.
According to IFCO, the contempt shown by Donald Trump's administration toward Cuba presents a climate in this country, where those who oppose the island believe that such hostile, individualistic, and terrorist acts are justified and that they will be protected from the full force of the law.
If the U.S. government and associated police agencies do not move forcefully and quickly in investigating the who, what and why of Alexander Alazo's attack on the Cuban embassy and press for a speedy trial, a dangerous precedent will be created for diplomatic relations with all nations, the text said.
"We reiterate that regardless of where an embassy is located, Secret Service agents are obliged to protect the inviolability of those foreign missions under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," the statement added.
Numerous voices inside and outside the United States repudiated the attack and demanded a thorough investigation of what happened after Alazo fired more than 30 shots at the diplomatic mission in the early hours of Thursday before being arrested by local authorities.
