CUBADEBATE
Foreign Ministry statement:
US missile that came to Cuba by mistake and was returned
February 13, 2016
Google translation. Hurriedly edited by Walter Lippmann.
STATEMENT BY THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
In June 2014, it arrived in Havana on a flight from Paris, a commercial cargo, where it was inspected by the authorities of the General Customs of the Republic, it was found that it contained a “Hellfire” rocket with a self-guided AGM 114 laser head.
This missile arrived in Cuba by mistake or mishandling in the country of origin. For the Cuban authorities the arrival in the country of US-made military environment, which had not been declared as such in the cargo manifest of the airplane that transported, was worrying.
This military item was properly preserved and guarded. Once the Government of the United States officially informed the Cuban government that it was a training missile, belonging to the “Lockheed Martin” company, which had been sent to our country by mistake and they looked forward to its recovery, Cuba transmitted the decision to surrender and negotiations between the two sides began to proceed with its return.
As a result of these exchanges, a team of experts from the US government and that company traveled to Cuba to review the status of the load. On 13 February 2016 the experts returned to the United States with the missile.
Cuba acted with professionalism and transparency, and cooperated to find a satisfactory solution to this.
Foreign Ministry statement: US missile that came to Cuba by mistake and was returned
