Bruno has a valid question for Mike Pompeo

By Charles McKelvey

May 13, 2020

Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations Bruno Rodríguez, in a press conference on May 12, revealed details concerning the individual who fired thirty-two shots with a semi-automatic assault rifle at the Cuban embassy building in Washington, DC on April 30. Alexander Alazo Baró is a Cuban native who has lived in the United States since 2010. Prior to the attack, he had made declarations to various law enforcement agencies to the effect that he was being pursued by Cuban criminal groups and by the Cuban government, thus displaying signs of mental instability, an image that is reinforced by documents released in relation to his arrest for the events of April 30.

However, in contrast to this image of mental instability, the Minister reported that Alazo Baró in his infancy and youth and while he lived in Cuba maintained a completely normal social conduct, with religious inclinations, which led him to a professional life dedicate to pastoral work. In 2003 he settled in Mexico with a religious visa. He resided in Mexico for several years, married to a Mexican woman dedicated to the same profession; and he maintained a normal relation with Cuba, visiting on eight occasions, the last time in 2015. During this time, he did not have any problems with his country of origin. There is no indication of an attitude of hostility toward the government of Cuba nor of mental instability.

In 2010, before his last trip to Cuba, he moved to the United States, where he lived first in Miami and later in Texas, Pennsylvania, and perhaps other places. During his time in Miami, he became associated with the Doral Jesus Worship Center, where he met persons with known hostility, aggression, violence, and extremism against Cuba; including its pastor, Frank López, who has ties with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and other persons that promote aggression against Cuba.

It appears that a series of events transpired, based in these relations with extremist enemies of Cuba in Miami, that led to the April 30 his attack on the Cuban embassy by Alazo Baró.

Rodríguez asks U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo what knowledge the U.S. Department of State has of this affair? What does the U.S. government know of the relation between Alazo Baró and extremist elements in Miami, some of whom have ties with the administration of Donald Trump?

It is a valid question, to which the U.S. government ought to respond.