WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Cuba鈥檚 ambassador to the United States says a weekend incident in which at least one incendiary device was thrown into the Cuban embassy compound was a 鈥渢errorist attack.鈥
The Cuban embassy's chief of mission, Lianys Torres Rivera, told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that the Sunday night incident was part of a pattern of attacks directed at Cuban overseas missions over the course of the last ten years.
鈥淲e think that it鈥檚 a terrorist attack that according to that and according to the history of a terrorist attack, that for decades it has been done against Cuban diplomatic missions,鈥 she said.
She could not comment on the motivation of the attacker, who remains at large, but said 鈥渨e think that the origin, the roots, it鈥檚 in this case in this a policy of aggression and hatred against that for decades has been the one of the difference a U.S. administration against our country.鈥
The incident remains under investigation by the Washington D.C. police, the Secret Service and the State Department. U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan and the State Department, have condemned the attack.
Torres Rivera said the embassy would continue to function as normal.
鈥淲e are just alert and taking the proper measure that have to be taken, that has to be taken, in situations like this,鈥 she said. 鈥淎nd, I think that in the case of the U.S. as a host country, they should also take this as a call to secure the embassy staff and the premises to avoid or to prevent ... attacks like this in the future.鈥
U.S. law enforcement officials said Monday they were investigating the attack but said there was no significant damage and no one was injured, as did the Cuban embassy.
Secret Service officers were called around 8 p.m. Sunday to respond to the attack on a busy street in the Adams-Morgan section of the city.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on the X social media site that the Cuban Embassy 鈥渨as the target of a terrorist attack by an individual who threw 2 Molotov cocktails,鈥 a type of crude grenade made from a bottle filled with flammable liquid and a wick that鈥檚 lit just before it鈥檚 thrown.
In 2020, a Cuban man who sought asylum in the U.S. with an AK-47 at the Cuban Embassy, spraying the front of the building with nearly three dozen rounds. Authorities said the man told them he opened fire because he wanted to
The shooting left bullet holes in the glass around the embassy鈥檚 door, and bullets pierced the bronze statue of Jose Marti, the Cuban writer and national hero, as well as the columns and facade of the building.
Cuba built the embassy in 1917. It closed in January 1961 as Cold War tensions between the two countries escalated, and it reopened as an 鈥渋nterests section鈥 in 1977. In July 2015, it as the two countries restored relations under President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro.
The embassy is on a busy street between the embassies of Poland and Lithuania.
