With the sabotage of the CIA to the French freighter La Coubre, 15 months after the revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959, Cuba realized the scale of the battle it had to face in order to defend its right to sovereignty.
That fact, unpunished to this day, showed the world the determination of the Cubans to face all the aggressions, when in the burial to the victims the Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro pronounced the historical slogan Patria o Muerte (Homeland or Death), that since then the Revolution raised in all their struggles.
The March 4, 1960, explosion of La Coubre, carrying weapons and ammunition, was the most horrific terrorist attack ever perpetrated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency against the Caribbean nation.
The ship from Antwerp, Belgium, carried 32 tons of grenades and 43 tons of ammunition destined for the defense of the Revolution, when during the process of unloading at the old pier the Arsenal, there was an explosion followed by another one that claimed the life of more than a hundred people who helped the first victims.
Marines, dockers, firefighters, police and civilians were also among the 34 missing, about 400 injured, many of them disabled for life.
Although the evidence shows that the explosions were the result of sabotage prepared at some shipping point or during the crossing, and Cuba has denounced the responsibility of the CIA in this terrorist attack, the crime continues unpunished 57 years later.