Stand and Deliver

Along the western shore of Barbados, overlooking the turquoise waters of Paynes Bay, sits an 11-foot-tall granite obelisk. Its inscription reads, “In memory of those who lost their lives in the bombing of the Cubana DC-8 aircraft, flight CUT 1201 which crashed in the sea off Barbados on October 6th, 1976. May their souls rest in peace.” Engraved in the stone are the names of the 73 victims of one of the Western Hemisphere’s worst-ever aviation attacks.

The obelisk is also a testament to the culpability and hypocrisy of multiple U.S. presidential administrations that took no action when intelligence presaged the attack and, later, allowed the masterminds to live in America, buoyed by