Fact Sheet on February 24, 1996 Brothers to the Rescue Shoot down

 “There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends.” – John 15:13 

Murdered on Raul Castro's orders on February 24, 1996

 
February 24, 1996 shoot down was an act of state terrorism that blew two civilian aircraft out of the sky with air to air missiles while in international airspace after regime planned the act months beforehand with its espionage network in the United States.
 
 FACT 1: By definition: Terrorism is the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear)
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=terrorism  


FACT 2: Cuba is responsible for violating the right to life (Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man) to the detriment of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre, who died as a result of the direct actions of its agents on the afternoon of 24 February 1996 while flying through international airspace.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights September 29, 1999 Report on the Merits http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/99eng/Merits/Cuba11.589.htm

FACT 3: Cuba is responsible for violating the right to a fair trial (Article XVIII of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man) to the detriment of the relatives of Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña, and Armando Alejandre, in that to date the Cuban authorities have not conducted an exhaustive investigation with a view toward prosecuting and punishing the perpetrators and have not indemnified those same relatives for the damage they suffered as a result of those illicit acts.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights September 29, 1999 Report on the Merits http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/99eng/Merits/Cuba11.589.htm

FACT 4: In Alejandre v. Republic of Cuba, 996 F.Supp. 1239 (S.D.Fla. 1997), a federal district court awarded the families of three of the four occupants of the “ Brothers to the Rescue” planes shot down by Cuba in 1996 a total of $187.7 million in damages against Cuba.

Lawsuits Against State Supporters of Terrorism: An Overview by Jennifer K. Elsea  
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RS22094.pdf

FACT 5: WASP spy network was involved. One of the “illegal officers” (Gerardo Hernandez) was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder based on his role in the February 24, 1996, shoot-down of two unarmed civilian aircraft in international airspace by Cuban Air Force jet fighters, which resulted in the deaths of four people, three of them U.S. citizens.

Department of Justice on Obama Commutations
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-commutations#dec152014

FACT 6: Brothers to the Rescue had spotted and saved thousands of rafters in the Florida Straits and was engaged in such a mission on that day. The one plane that skirted the boundary briefly was the only one to return. The other two were shotdown miles away from Cuba’s boundary having never entered or touched it on that day and the planes had been in contact with the Cuban tower throughout the flight.

ICAO Resolution on February 24 shootdown 
http://www.icao.int/icao/en/nr/1996/pio199606_e.pdf

FACT 7: On July 26, 1996 the United Nations Security Council: "Noting that the unlawful downing of two civil aircraft on 24 February by the Cuban Air Force violated the principle that States must refrain from using weapons against airborne civil aircraft, the Security Council this afternoon condemned such use as being incompatible with the rules of customary international law "

ICAO Resolution on February 24 shootdown 
http://www.icao.int/icao/en/nr/1996/pio199606_e.pdf

FACT 8: Ana Belen Montes, the US intelligence community's top analyst on Cuban affairs had throughout a sixteen-year career at the Defense Intelligence Agency sent the Cuba intelligence service sensitive and secret information and helped to shape US opinion on Cuba. Investigation against her was triggered by her odd behavior before and after the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down. On September 21 2001 Ana Belen Montes was arrested and subsequently charged with Conspiracy to Commit Espionage for the government of Cuba. Montes eventually pleaded guilty to spying, and in October, 2002, she was sentenced to a 25-year prison term followed by 5 years of probation.

True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba's Master Spy http://www.amazon.com/True-Believer-Inside-Investigation-Capture/dp/1591141001

FACT 9: On December 27, 2010 and again in a January 19, 2011 clarification the defense of Cuban spy-master Gerardo Hernandez acknowledged that "there was overwhelming evidence that the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes occurred in international airspace, not Cuban territory."

The Miami Herald: Cuban spymaster now claims Brothers to the Rescue shooting was outside Cuban airspace by Jay Weaver December 27, 2010 http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-12-27/news/fl-cuba-spy-20101227_1_cuban-government-gerardo-hernandez-jose-basulto

FACT 10: On December 17, 2014 President Barack Obama commuted Gerardo Hernandez’s two life sentences and returned him along with two other spies jailed for crimes in the United States to Cuba where they were received with a hero’s welcome in what is an immense propaganda victory for the Castro regime.

Department of Justice on Obama Commutations
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-commutations#dec152014 

International Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against Humanity of the Castro Regime met in the U.S. Congress today

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” - Milan Kundera

Some Cuban martyrs and victims of communism in Cuba

Today the Cannon Building of the U.S. Congress hosted an event that heard the public testimonies of the mother and father of Mario Manuel de la Peña, who was extrajudicially executed along with Armando Alejandre Jr, Carlos Costa, and Pablo Morales on February 24, 1996 in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down, and they continued in their 21 year odyssey seeking justice for their son and the others killed that day on Castro's orders. Three planes ventured out that day to search for and rescue Cuban rafters but only one plane returned. Sylvia Iriondo was on that plane and today she gave her testimony on what she experienced that terrible Saturday afternoon.

Parents of Mario de la Peña address Justice Cuba in the Cannon Building

The International Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against Humanity of the Castro Regime, also known by the abbreviated term JusticeCuba, met in the U.S. Congress today in the Cannon Building and listened to the testimony of victims of cruel and unusual punishment, relatives of individuals extrajudicially executed by agents of the Castro regime, of Cuban political prisoners in the 1970s had been the victims of sonic attacks, and the harm done to Venezuela by the Castro regime's military and intelligence services.

Sylvia Iriondo addresses Justice Cuba in the Cannon Building

I had the difficult task of serving as an interpreter for: Jorge García Más, who lost 14 family members in the July 13, 1994 "13 de marzo" tugboat massacre; political prisoners Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez and Basilio Guzman who served 22 years in prison and recounted the beatings, sonic attacks, and mistreatment they and their compatriots were subjected to in Castro's prisons and a member of the Venezuelan military  testified on the systematic penetration of Venezuelan institutions by the Castro regime and how it has turned Venezuela into a totalitarian regime.

Listening to Jorge García Más, who lost 14 family members on July 13, 1994

Basilio Guzman was freed and forcibly exiled in 1984, after 22 years in prison, and flew to the United States along with 25 other Cuban political prisoners with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who had petitioned for their release when he visited Cuba and met with Fidel Castro. Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez who was freed in 1991 also addressed the use of sound to mistreat political prisoners:

"Although with other characteristics , in the summer of 1977, on the occasion were various Cuban political prisoners found ourselves in the punishment cells of the Combinado del Este prison, the prison authorities made use of the application of acoustic tortures with the intention of breaking our physical and mental states of health. In the area of the punishment cells where I had been confined during those days were also the political prisoners  Luis Zuñiga, Miguel Angel Alvarez Cardenty, Servando Infante Jimenez, Remberto Zamora Chirino, Teodoro Gonzalez Alvarado, Sergio Bravo and Reinaldo Lopez Lima.

Rafael del Pino Siero, U.S. citizen, was another who inhabited those infernal jails. We knew of his personal differences with Fidel Castro, with whom he had shared a frustrated friendship. This was the apparent reason that in reprisal during many years they denied him adequate medical assistance to correct a serious infection that he had suffered in the bladder. In that way from the time of his arrest and imprisonment he had been obligated to carry, for years, with a catheter and plastic bag for the collection of urine. The accumulated suffering of this period of cruelty, added to the sonic tortures that together with us he was a victim of, were probably the cause during those days that motivated what the government defined as a suicide by this political prisoner in his punishment cell."

Although Ernesto Díaz went on to say that it was possible it was a murder covered up as a suicide. In reality, either way, Rafael del Pino Siero was a victim of the Communist tyranny of Cuba. Basilio Guzman described the after effects of the sonic attacks he suffered while in prison: "I have never been able to climb a ladder again, the doctor has forbidden me, because I feel that I have lost my stability since those days in prison."

Basilio Guzman (left) and Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez (right) testified today

Congresswoman Illeana Ros Lehtinen and Congressman Mario Diaz Balart addressed the Commission and thanked them for their work and the need for it to continue in order to hold the Castro regime accountable.

Congressman Diazz Balart addresses the Commission and the audience

Congressman Mario Diaz Balart tweeted: "[m]ust continue to condemn #humanrights abuses + brutal oppression of the Castro regime. Thank you to pro-democracy leaders, families of victims, + participants who shared their stories today in the halls of Congress #JusticeCuba" 

Earlier in the day members of the JusticeCuba commission went to the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC to obtain visas to travel to Cuba to interview victims and oppressors. They were denied entry to the diplomatic compound. This should not have been a surprise.

Members of theJusticeCuba Commission outside the Embassy of Cuba in DC

The regime in Cuba refuses to be held accountable. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Committee of the Red Cross have not had access to Cuban prisons for decades. Furthermore, former long term political prisoner and opposition leader Jorge Luís García Pérez “Antunez” was blocked from traveling out of Cuba to testify at this hearing.

All of this demonstrates that the Castro regime fears truth and memory because it leads to justice that would hold the oppressors accountable.

The February 24, 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown remembered

Truth, memory, and justice for Carlos, Pablo, Mario, Armando and their loved ones.

 
Twenty one years ago today on a sunny Saturday afternoon over the Florida Straits three civilian planes of Brothers to the Rescue engaged in a search and rescue mission for fleeing refugees. At the same time they were being hunted by two Cuban MiGs and two of the planes were destroyed by air to air missiles on the Castro brothers orders killing four men: Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr.  The third plane was able to escape the fate of the other planes and the survivors bore witness to what had happened.

Later on it was learned that the Cuban dictatorship had planned this attack months in advance, with the aid of Cuban spies operating in South Florida and that this was an act of state terrorism. The families of the four men have waged a steadfast effort to obtain justice for their loved ones.

Source: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Report Nº 86/99 Case 11.589 Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario De La Peña, and Pablo Morales Cuba September 29, 1999