On this day Pablo Morales Barbas was born in 1966. He was murdered by the Castro regime on February 24, 1996.

 "Only through non violent means can we cleanse the Cuban nation from the hatred instilled by the dictatorship in Cuban hearts. The nonviolent methods have proven to be the most effective and humanitarian means of resistance against Castro's totalitarian state." - Jose Basulto, Our Struggle, March 2, 1996

May 16, 1966 - Feb 24, 1996

Four men were killed when the two planes they were flying in were shot down on a Saturday afternoon at 3:21 and 3:27 on February 24, 1996 over international airspace while engaged in a search and rescue flight for Cuban rafters. Their planes were destroyed by air-to-air missiles fired by a Cuban MiG-29 aircraft on the orders of Raul and Fidel Castro.  

Eva Barbas mourns her son's passing.

Pablo Morales Barbas was born in Havana, Cuba, on May 16, 1966 and was the same age as Carlos Costa but with a different life experience. He studied cartography and obtained a degree as a geodesics technician. In August 1992, Pablo fled Cuba on a raft and after three days at sea, was spotted in the ocean by Brothers to the Rescue. This experience motivated him to join the previously mentioned organization. He was a passenger in the aircraft with Carlos Costa when they were shot down on February 24, 1996. 

Pablo's mom Eva Barba holds a Bible open with a photo of her son.

Pablo was survived by his mother Eva Barbas, who passed away in 2013, a sister, and a brother. He was a Cuban citizen at the time of his death with residency in the United States and was just 29 years old. He would have turned fifty five years old today.

What was Pablo doing in Brothers to the Rescue?

He risked his live in the Florida Straits to rescue Cuban rafters and at the same time the organization he belonged to, Brothers to the Rescue, challenged the Cuban exile community to abandon both violent resistance and appeasement approaches in order to embrace strategic nonviolence.  This path followed the way of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi with both civil disobedience and a constructive program. 

 

What was the end result? Brothers to the Rescue saved more than 4,200 men, women, and children ranging from a five-day old infant to a 79 year old man, and rescued thousands more during the 1994 refugee crisis. This humanitarian movement also brought together Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits. This the Castro regime could not abide, and did all it could to destroy this grassroots movement, including murder and terrorism.

He did not die in vain and his martyrdom is remembered inside and outside of Cuba and will continue to be so wherever free Cubans gather. This is also true of the other three men who died with him on February 24, 1996.

 

 

The four who were killed represented all aspects of the Cuban diaspora: Armando Alejandre Jr, a child who arrived with his parents from Cuba in 1960, Carlos Costa, born in Miami Beach in 1966 and Mario Manuel de la Peña, born in New Jersey in 1971 the children of Cuban exiles. 

 

Pablo Morales was born in Cuba in 1966, raised there and was saved by Brothers to the Rescue when he was 26 years old while fleeing the island on a raft. Two were from Havana, one was from New Jersey and the other from Miami Beach.  

Today we remember Pablo Morales on the 55th anniversary of his birth, and the cost of nonviolent resistance that saved thousands of lives, and for the span of five years brought Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits together.