Cuba says embassy in DC hit with Molotov cocktails

The Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., was attacked Sunday evening with Molotov cocktails, according to a statement from the country’s chief diplomat.

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said two makeshift weapons were tossed at the embassy building by a currently unknown assailant.

“In the evening of today, Sep 24, the Cuban embassy in the US was the target of a terrorist attack by an individual who launched 2 Molotov cocktails,” Rodríguez Parrilla wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “The staff suffered no harm. Details are being worked out. “

In a statement to The Hill, The United States Secret Service said that Cuban Embassy officials contacted its Uniformed Division shortly after 8 p.m. “to report an individual who had thrown a possible incendiary device (molotov cocktail) at the building.”

“Officers responded swiftly to begin an investigation,” Secret Service spokesperson Steven Kopek said. “There was no fire or significant damage to the building. No one is in custody at this time and we are working closely with embassy officials and our partners at DC Police and the United States Department of State on this investigation.” 

Rodríguez Parrilla suggested the attack may have been politically motivated. “Anti-Cuban groups turn to terrorism when they feel impunity, something Cuba has repeatedly warned US authorities about,” he wrote in a post on X. 

The minister noted this was the second attack to have occurred at the embassy in recent years. In April 2020, Alexander Alazo, a Cuban-born man, fired nearly three dozen rounds at the embassy with an AK-47 assault rifle.

The embassy itself has only been open since 2015 after formal diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were reestablished under former President Obama’s administration.