Havana restores monument to victims of USS Maine HAVANA (AP) —
It was a little before 10 p.m. that February night in 1898 when
a fiery explosion roiled the normally calm waters of Havana
Harbor, blowing out windows in the city and sinking the USS
Maine to the bottom of the bay, just the mast and some twisted
metal wreckage left to poke above the waves. Havana's monument
to the 266 U.S. sailors who died that night was dedicated 27
years later as a tribute to lasting Cuban-American friendship, a
thank-you for Washington's help in shedding the yoke of Spanish
colonial rule, which was known for its cruelty. The years since
have been unkind to the twin-columned monument, and to U.S.-Cuba
ties. But while relations between Washington and Havana remain
in deep freeze, the monument, at least, is now getting a
facelift. The restoration project is fraught with symbolism,
with the monument's scars telling the story of more than a
century of shifts in the complex relationship and changing
interpretations of the marble str