US behind blasts, says Cuba

The bulletin also said that “two explosive devices blew up in the lobbies of the Nacional and Capri hotels which slightly wounded three people and damaged windows and furniture”.

This is the first time the Cuban Government has acknowledged reported explosions at hotels frequented by tourists and foreigners.

Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment on reports that in April, one bomb exploded and another was deactivated at the posh Spanish-managed Melia Cohiba Hotel here, and that a third exploded was defused a few days later in a hotel in the resort city of Varadero.

Tourism Minister Osmany Cienfuegos, who briefly toured the scene at the Nacional, said the incident clearly was “an action by our enemies”.

Authorities were investigating at the Nacional, which overlooks the waterfront Malecon, and at the mid-rise Capri. The explosion at the Nacional created a mess in the elegant lobby, where large windows that look over gardens and out to sea were broken.

Meanwhile, the remains of revolutionary hero Che Guevara have arrived in Cuba, after Bolivian officials earlier confirmed that they had been positively identified.

The Cuban aircraft carrying the bones of the legendary Argentine-Cuban Leftist touched down late yesterday at the military airport in San Antonio De Los Banos, about 30 kms from Havana.

The remains were flown to Cuba after Bolivian Interior Minister Victor Hugo Canelas said earlier that bones dug up from a burial site near the town of Vallegrande had been identified beyond doubt as those of Guevara.

The Minister quoted Cuban anthropologists and Argentine forensic experts as saying Guevara had been positively identified by the form of his skull and teeth.