The building had shaken, but the man, dressed in his typical olive green military uniform and military boots, had continued his speech undaunted in front of the United Nations General Assembly. He didn’t even pause. An hour later, walking through the hall of delegates, Ernesto Guevara made a single comment about the failed bazooka attack that had targeted him but that, if successful, could have cost the lives of many of the representatives who were there. present. A chronicle of The New York Times He says that he took the Cuban cigar he was smoking out of his mouth, smiled and said: “This gave a lot more flavor to the matter.”.
It was the early afternoon of December 11, 1964, and the “matter” to which Che, then Minister of Industries of Cuba and delegate of that country to the Assembly, was referring was lto the strong intervention he had just given from the stand before the representatives of the rest of the member countries of the UN.
The Cuban revolution was about to complete six years in power, during which it had faced many critical situations of great international repercussion. First, the frustrated Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, and then the missile crisis that had kept the world in suspense in October 1962. Added to that was the “total commercial embargo on Cuba” dictated by Washington. .
In his speech, the 36-year-old Argentine-Cuban guerrilla leader had denounced the actions of “North American imperialism” in Latin America, “colonialism” in Africa, and the “evils of capitalism” in the world. He had also exalted the role of non-aligned countries and the role of the poor of Latin American countries in the “liberation” of the people.
“Now history will have to count on the poor of America, with the exploited and vilified of Latin America, who have decided to begin writing themselves, forever, their history (…). And that wave of shaken resentment, of justice demanded, of rights trampled, that begins to rise across the lands of Latin America, that wave will not stop anymore. That wave will grow with each passing day. Because that wave is made up of the majority, the majority in all aspects, those who accumulate wealth with their work, create values, make the wheels of history move and who now wake up from the long brutalizing sleep to which they were subjected,” he had saying.
It was at 12:10 noon, when the explosion was heard and the entire UN building in Manhattan shook and the glass of many of its windows burst into pieces.
The day scheduled for Guevara to speak before the Assembly had started tense and continued to be heated. Very early in the morning, an anonymous call alerted about the presence of a bomb in the UN building. When the security personnel searched it exhaustively, inch by inch, they found nothing.
At mid-morning, the tension caused by the bomb threat was compounded by the concentration of a large group of Cuban exiles who organized a protest in front of the building to repudiate the presence of Guevara and, in his person, the revolution led by Fidel Castro. . Beyond the shouts and the banners, the demonstration took place peacefully until a woman broke away from the group and ran, wielding a hunting knife with a 20-centimeter blade, towards the door of the headquarters. When she was detained, the woman, a Cuban exile named Molly González, said without euphemisms that He intended to “liquidate” Che by sticking the gun between his ribs.
Guevara learned about the episode when he was already inside the building and was preparing his papers to deliver the speech. He took it calmly: “It is better to be killed by a woman with a knife than by a man with a gun.”he said and continued reviewing the text.
The Cuban representative’s turn to speak in the Assembly arrived shortly before 12. Applauded by many of the delegates from other countries, Guevara left his seat and walked slowly towards the stage. After addressing the president of the Assembly and the other delegates, he began: “The representation of Cuba before this Assembly is pleased to fulfill, first of all, the pleasant duty of welcoming the incorporation of three new nations to the important number of those here They discuss world problems. We therefore greet, in the person of your president and prime ministers, the people of Zambia, Malawi and Malta and we hope that these countries join from the first moment the group of non-aligned nations that fight against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism.”
He then denounced “American interventionism” and defended Cuba’s sovereignty and its right to defense. “As everyone knows, after the tremendous upheaval called the Caribbean crisis, the United States entered into certain commitments with the Soviet Union that culminated in the withdrawal of certain types of weapons that the continuous aggressions of that country – such as the mercenary attack of Playa Girón and the threats to invade our homeland forced us to locate in Cuba in an act of legitimate and inalienable defense. The Americans also wanted the United Nations to inspect our territory, which we emphatically refused, since Cuba does not recognize the right of the United States, or anyone else in the world, to determine the type of weapons it may have inside. of its borders,” he added.
The speech was in a continuous crescendo when, at 12:10, an explosion was heard that shook the building and caused glass to burst from several windows. Outside, protesters who were still protesting scattered in panic. On the stand, Ernesto Guevara He didn’t flinch and continued reading as if nothing had happened.. Minutes later he finished it by pronouncing the slogan that most identified the Cuban revolution: “Homeland or Death.”
It was soon discovered that it had been a bazooka shot, more precisely one of those used by the US army, fired from Queens, on the other side of the Hudson River, and directed towards the building. The tests later determined that the shooter(s) They had targeted the back of the UN buildingwhere the Security Council room is located, a few meters from where Guevara was speaking before the General Assembly.
However, the rocket did not reach the building, but instead exploded 183 meters away, over the waters of the Hudson. The chronicle of The New York Times He reports that, despite this, it generated a shock wave that made the building shake, broke the windows and caused a strong wave that impacted against the structure of the building. Some witnesses spoke of “an earth tremor” or “a small tsunami.”. The New York newspaper also noted that the explosion and screams from the crowd in front marked one of the “most extravagant” episodes since the UN moved to its headquarters on the east side of Manhattan in 1952. In fact, even then no one had attacked the building.
It was never known if it was a failed attack or if in reality those who fired deliberately avoided hitting the building and only wanted to give a signal, a message or simply generate concern. The culprits were not identified, much less captured, which gave rise to the circulation of multiple rumors that even pointed to the CIA and other US security agencies.
A few days after the explosion, the UN Security Council meeting room took extra precautions by installing protective curtains, which For more than half a century, it forced the representatives of the countries that comprise it to meet without seeing the light of the sun.
Only in 2019 were they withdrawn at the request of Germany, which held the temporary presidency of the organization. In announcing it, the German representation explained its reasons: “Transparency and openness to a broader United Nations membership and to civil society are crucial not only symbolically, but also in practice, for credibility and legitimacy.”
