On November 19 and 20, American TV networks and international press agencies reported that in the wee hours of the 17^th a fast boat of the type usually employed in human trafficking, coming from Florida and registered in the U.S., had fetched a group of about 30 people, 13 of them children.

The incident analyzed at the TV Roundtable on Friday, November 23, at 6:30 p.m., have made our people react with great indignation. Everyone knows that such episodes, where grave physical accidents occur and lives are lost, happen relatively often.

In the aftermath of September 11, the Miami terrorist Mafia, aware of its direct involvement and responsibility in numerous repugnant and grave terrorist acts perpetrated against our people, and scared over the terribly serious events in New York, kept a rather low profile for a number of weeks.

Lately, however, they are growing increasingly active in their treacherous campaigns, plans and conspiracies against the Revolution. This becomes an incentive for the lumpen and worst elements living in Miami to commit other felonies and crimes. Hence, the progressive resumption of the journeys by the smugglers of Cuban people.

This time they went as far as taking no less than 30 people in a 30-feet-long fast boat, where 10 or 12 people can hardly fit. There was a bad weather, strong winds and waves exceeding two meters. Apparently, the boat capsized tens of miles off the U.S. coasts. This monstrosity, the result of impunity and tolerance, has led to the atrocious death of many Cuban children in their first semester of the school year.

As previously informed, on the night of Saturday 24 and throughout Sunday 25, a cruel and gross maneuver aimed at deception and misinformation was arranged from Miami. A scheme was developed to imply that the people involved in the tragic wreckage were save and sound in Panama, rescued by a Panamanian merchant ship. It was all a cynical and deliberately fabricated lie. After the relevant authorities and sources that could better know the truth were consulted in several countries, their clear and categorical response was that they did not have any information to confirm that report.

Although our people are involved in the hard recovery efforts that followed the destruction and damages caused by the hurricane that has just hit the country, they cannot remain impassive.

Today, November 27, at 5:00 p.m., a mass rally will be held at the José Martí Anti-imperialist Square to protest and repudiate such events. Three hundred thousand students, workers and residents in the capital will manifest their condemnation of the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, which has taken a high toll in human lives.

It will also be an expression of mourning for the innocent children, whose brief and happy lives were cut short, perhaps enduring indescribable horror scenes, as a consequence of the criminal policies long pursued against our country.

Before that, at 2:00 p.m., 50 thousand students and other youths will leave from the University campus down San Lázaro street, and march towards the monument that honors the medical students executed 130 years ago, in front of La Punta castle. After the traditional commemoration, they will march along the Malecón towards the José Martí Anti-imperialist Square to join the masses already there.

This November 27, a historic day of mourning, we shall not only remember the innocent students viciously executed by the Spanish metropolis in 1871, but we shall also condemn the infamous imperialist legislation that for tens of years has systematically murdered Cuban children.

November 27, 2001