Caracas, Venezuela.- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro paid tribute this Sunday to the 73 martyrs killed in the 1976 terrorist act against a Cubana de Aviación plane, known as the Barbados crime.

Through a message broadcast on Twitter, the Venezuelan president said that 43 years later, the United States continues to finance and support policies of war in the world, which threaten the peace of peoples.

On October 6, 1976, Cubana de Aviacion flight 455 was destroyed with two bombs. This flight was directed from the island of Barbados to Havana, capital of Cuba.

Investigations reveal that the act was orchestrated by terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, who used citizens Hernan Ricardo and Freddy Lugo to place the bombs inside the plane.

Ricardo and Lugo were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Bosch, after a brief period in detention, was acquitted and Posada Carriles was in prison for eight years until he fled with the support of prison guards.

On board the aircraft, 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and five Koreans died in the worst attack of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

Among the victims were the 24 members of the Cuban national youth fencing team, who were returning to Cuba after winning all the gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championships; several of them were not even 20 years old.