"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
Time to set the record straight on education in Cuba
Students entering the University of Havana
Amnesty Global Insights on August 28, 2017 reported on how the internet is controlled and censored in Cuba, but then makes an assertion on the Cuban education system that many Cubans familiar with what existed before and after the Castro Revolution of 1959 would dispute and that is that the current dictatorship has had "achievements in education" citing that "UNESCO and UNICEF
have commended Cuba’s educational achievements. Students from across
the Caribbean, particularly medical students, graduate from its
universities yearly." The Castro regime's diplomats have been very active in both UN organizations and impacted on their reporting. Meanwhile foreign students who studied in Cuba have not been sufficiently prepared to pass their medical license exams. In Pakistan, Cuban trained doctors are demanding an exemption from medical licensing exams to practice medicine there.
The Slovak-based People in Peril conducted a study between 2005 and 2006
that generated a 77 page analysis, What is the future of education in
Cuba?, that a decade a go found an educational system in ruins . Eliska Slavikova of People in Peril interviewed by El Nuevo Herald
on October 23, 2007 observed ''Cuban education is destroyed, with grave
problems like the deterioration of the schools, the predominance of
ideology over teaching and the bad preparation of teachers.'' The study
made the following findings:
• There's been a ''pronounced'' departure of teachers to other jobs because of low salaries and the lack of social recognition.
• Many teachers also left their jobs because of the government's growing
ideological pressures. The primary objective of education is the
formation of future revolutionary communists.
• The great majority of schools lack the equipment and installations needed to provide a good education.
• High school graduates have been put to teach after only an eight-month
special course. But much of the teaching now is done through
educational TV channels.
A later analyses of Cuba's educational system in 2008 and more recently in 2015 arrived at the same conclusions on lack of quality, resources and continued politicization of the curriculum. Although Amnesty International mentions "people who have been expelled from university for accessing 'unapproved' information" there is no mention of students expelled and professors fired for their political views or familial ties to Cuban dissidents.
Clockwise: Harold Cepero, Sayli Navarro, David Mauri, Fếlix Yuniel, Karla Pérez,
Meanwhile at the University of Miami in the midst of a controversy where the Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies was shut down, all staff fired, and the director, Professor Jaime Suchlicki, apparently forced out on August 15, 2017 because the new president of the University of Miami Julio Frenk wanted to go in a different direction which involved engaging the Castro regime and shutting down a center of academic inquiry. The controversy led UM president Frenk to backpedal and pledge that ICCAS would be reopened and that there would be no institutional relationship with the Castro regime, although they already do exist in other departments.
Inside Higher Education in an article titled "A U.S. University Cuts Itself off From Cuba" quotes "Caleb Everett, a professor and the chair of the anthropology department" who said that
"we understand the dilemma that Frenk is facing in this kind of case
where he has a very vocal minority that understandably has strong
opinions on the matter. Our strong belief is that to move forward with
Cuba from an academic perspective we need collaborative efforts."
This ignores that collaboration with the Cuban government has led in other universities with Cuban Studies self censoring to maintain the relationship with the dictatorship to have access the island compromising academic inquiry. Furthermore students have been targets of espionage and targeted for recruitment by Castro's intelligence service.
Dr. Carlos & Elsa Alvarez: Castro spies at FIU
Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute has had such a "collaborative" relationship in the past that generated bad press for the school. FIU Psychology professor Carlos Alvarez who was the associate professor for educational leadership and policy studies,
and his wife Elsa Alvarez, counselor for the psychological services
department at Florida International University were arrested by the FBI on January 6, 2006. Professor Alvarez conducted trips to Cuba with young professionals in the late 1990s in what was billed a conflict resolution project. Carlos Alvarez was sentenced to five years in prison and Elsa Alvarez to three years in prison on February 28, 2007 for conspiring to act as unregistered Cuban agents spying on FIU students.
Casa Bacardi shut down at the University of Miami
UM Professor Everett would like to frame this discussion as a "vocal minority" in the community with "strong opinions" in order to not address the substance of the irregular manner in which ICCAS was shut down and the questions of academic freedom that were raised in the subsequent dialogue along with questions about the complete lack of academic freedom in Cuba and its links to the Cuban dictatorship's spying apparatus. At a time when American and Canadian diplomats have suffered hearing loss and brain damage in Cuba, due either to an attack or espionage gone wrong, these questions have new and urgent relevance as does the need for UM's the Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies to maintain its independence and ability to debunk the Castro regime's false narrative with serious scholarship. Both Amnesty International and Professor Everett should know better and not repeat the false narrative propagated by the Castro regime.
Antonio Guerrero Offense: Conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, 18 U.S.C.
§ 371; conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information,
18 U.S.C. § 794(c); acting as an agent of a foreign government without
prior notification to the Attorney General, 18 U.S.C. § 951
District/Date: Southern Florida; December 27, 2001
Sentence: 262 months' imprisonment (as amended on October 13, 2009); five years' supervised release
Terms of Grant: Sentence of imprisonment to expire on December 17, 2014, term of
supervised release commuted in its entirety, and any unpaid balance of
the special assessment remitted; conditioned on commutation recipient's
departing from the United States on December 17, 2014, voluntarily
renouncing his United States citizenship within two weeks of December
17, 2014, thereafter remaining outside the limits of the United States,
its territories and its possessions, not accepting or receiving any
financial benefit from any book, movie or other publication or
production about his situation, renouncing any claim to benefits,
including benefits under the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability
Insurance Program, related to employment while in the United States, and
waiving and releasing any and all claims against the United States of
America, its agents, servants and employees, including any actions
challenging his conviction or sentence
Gerardo Hernandez Offense: Conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, 18 U.S.C.
§ 371; conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information,
18 U.S.C § 794(c); conspiracy to commit murder, 18 U.S.C. § 1117; fraud
and misuse of documents, 18 U.S.C § 1546(a); possession with intent to
use five or more fraudulent identification documents, 18 U.S.C. §
1028(a)(3); acting as an agent of foreign government without prior
notification to the Attorney General, 18 U.S.C. § 951
District/Date: Southern Florida; December 12, 2001
Sentence: Life imprisonment; five years' supervised release
Terms of Grant: Sentence of imprisonment to expire on December 17, 2014, term of
supervised release commuted in its entirety, and any unpaid balance of
the special assessment remitted; conditioned on commutation recipient's
departing from the United States on December 17, 2014, thereafter
remaining outside the limits of the United States, its territories and
its possessions, not accepting or receiving any financial benefit from
any book, movie or other publication or production about his situation,
renouncing any claim to benefits, including benefits under the Old Age,
Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program, related to employment while
in the United States, and waiving and releasing any and all claims
against the United States of America, its agents, servants and
employees, including any actions challenging his conviction or sentence
Luis Medina III, aka Ramon Labanino Offense: Conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, 18 U.S.C.
§ 371; conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense
information,18 U.S.C. § 794(c); fraud and misuse of documents, 18 U.S.C.
§ 1546(a); false statement in passport application, 18 U.S.C. § 1542;
possession with intent to use five or more fraudulent identification
documents, 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(3); acting as an agent of a foreign
government without prior notification to the Attorney General, 18 U.S.C.
§ 951
District/Date: Southern Florida; December 13, 2001
Sentence: 360 months' imprisonment (as amended on December 8, 2009); five years' supervised release
Terms of Grant: Sentence of imprisonment to expire on December 17, 2014, term of
supervised release commuted in its entirety, and any unpaid balance of
the special assessment remitted; conditioned on commutation recipient's
departing from the United States on December 17, 2014, thereafter
remaining outside the limits of the United States, its territories and
its possessions, not accepting or receiving any financial benefit from
any book, movie or other publication or production about his situation,
renouncing any claim to benefits, including benefits under the Old Age,
Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program, related to employment while
in the United States, and waiving and releasing any and all claims
against the United States of America, its agents, servants and
employees, including any actions challenging his conviction or sentence.
"Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land." - Martin Luther King Jr. April 3, 1968 Memphis, Tennessee
In 1992 a high ranking Russian intelligence officer defected to the United Kingdom and brought with him notes and transcripts compiled over the previous thirty years as he moved entire foreign intelligence archives to a new headquarters just outside of Moscow.
The Russian intelligence officer’s name was Vasili Mitrokhin and the information he gathered became known as The Mitrokhin Archive.
Pages 237 and 238 of The Sword and the Shield excerpted below detail elements of the campaign waged by Soviet intelligence and the active measures arrayed against the civil rights leader:
“In August 1967 the Centre approved an operational plan by the deputy head of Service A, Yuri Modin, former controller of the Magnificent Five, to discredit King and his chief lieutenants by placing articles in the African press, which could then be reprinted in American newspapers, portraying King as an “Uncle Tom” who was secretly receiving government subsidies to tame the civil rights movement and prevent it threatening the Johnson administration. While leading freedom marches under the admiring glare of worldwide television, King was allegedly in close touch with the President. 83 The same operational plan also contained a series of active measures designed to discredit US policy “on the negro.” The Centre authorized Modin:
To organize, through the use of KGB residency resources in the US, the publication and distribution of brochures, pamphlets, leaflets and appeals denouncing the policy of the Johnson administration on the Negro question and exposing the brutal terrorist methods being used by the government to suppress the Negro rights movement.
To arrange, via available agent resources, for leading figures in the legal profession to make public statements discrediting the policy of the Johnson administration on the Negro question.
To forge and distribute through illegal channels a document showing that the John Birch Society, in conjunction with the Minuteman organization, is developing a plan for the physical elimination of leading figures in the Negro movement in the US. 84
Service A sought to exploit the violent images of the long, hot summers which began in August 1965 which race riots in Watts, the black Los Angeles ghetto, which resulted in thirty-six deaths, left 1,0332 injured and caused damage estimated at over 40 million dollars. The Centre seems to have hoped that as violence intensified King would be swept aside by black radicals such as Stokeley Carmichael, who told a meeting of Third World revolutionaries in Cuba in the summer of 1967, “We have a common enemy. Our struggle is to overthrow this system . . . We are moving into open guerilla warfare in the United States.” Traveling on to North Vietnam, Carmichael declared in Hanoi, “We are not reformists…We are revolutionaries. We want to change the American system.”85
King’s assassination on April 4, 1968 was quickly followed by the violence and rioting which the KGB had earlier blamed King for trying to prevent. Within a week riots erupted in over a hundred cities, forty-six people had been killed, 3,500 injured and 20,000 arrested. To “Deke” DeLoach, it seemed that, “The nation was teetering on the brink of anarchy.”86 Henceforth, instead of dismissing King as an Uncle Tom, Service A portrayed him as a martyr of the black liberation movement and spread conspiracy theories alleging that his murder had been planned by white racists with the connivance of the authorities. 87
The Cuban "WASP" spies arrested in 1998 used coded material on computer disks to communicate with other members of the spy network. Below are two excerpts from the 1,300 pages taken from those diskettes translated and used during the spy trial that demonstrate the criminal nature of the Cuban regime's operation in South Florida. In the first excerpt it declares that their primary objective was "penetrating and obtaining information on the naval station located in that city." In the next excerpt intelligence operatives communicated about "burning down the warehouse" and sabotaging Brothers to the Rescue equipment. Also requested that they attempt to identify who would be flying at certain times.
The seriousness of these planned action items would be confirmed by the February 24, 1996 shoot down where two MiGs hunted Brothers to the Rescue planes in international airspace and used air to air missiles to destroy two of the planes killing two pilots and two passengers based on intelligence supplied by the WASP network.
SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING THE ESSENTIAL IDEA OF THE OPERATION WAS FOR A-32 TO JOIN WITH THE ILLEGALCENTER THAT WAS BEING DIRECTED BY A-4 AND WAS FUNCTIONING IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA.
2-. OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE OF THE OPERATION IS TO ESTABLISH S/A A-32 IN KEY WEST FOR THE PURPOSE OF PENETRATING AND OBTAINING INFORMATION ON THE NAVAL AIR STATION LOCATED IN THAT CITY.
ALSO, TO MAKE CONTACTS WHICH CAN PROVIDE US WITH MILITARY, POLITICAL , BIOGRAPHICAL AND OPERATIONAL INFORMATION AS AS TO STUDY COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS EXISTING IN THE AREA AND CARRY OUT STUDIES ON THE OPERATIONAL SITUATION OF ROADS, MAINLY IN KEY WEST.
3-. PARTICIPANTS
A-32 WILL BE THE MAIN PARTICIPANT AND HE WILL BE DIRECTLY UNDER I.O. A-4.
WORK DIRECTIVES FOR OPERATION “GIRÓN.”
1-. IDEA OF THE OPERATION
Reviewed by: LS Salomon
Declassified by: KMDJr / RJG
Cred. #10517
11/27/001
[…]
DHo-101 (E) CMA (Disk 17).wpd
OPERATION “PICADA’
OBJECTIVES:
1.-) TRY TO IMPEDE THE CONSUMPTION OF INTENTIONS OF THE OPERATION P.A.L. (PAN, AMOR Y LIBERTAD) OF THE COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION BROTHER’S TO THE RESCUE.
2.-) AFFECT AND DISCREDIT THE IMAGE OF SAID ORGANIZATION.
ACTIONS TO BE DEVELOPED:
1.-) PERFORM THE OPERATIONAL SITUATION STUDY OF THE HANGAR AT THE OPA LOCKA BASE WHERE THE ORGANIZATION KEEPS AND OPERATES THEIR PLANES.
2.-) THE POSSIBILITY OF BURNING DOWN THE WAREHOUSE OF THE COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION, AND AFFECT THEIR PLANES, MAKING IT SEEM LIKE AN ACCIDENT, NEGLIGENCE OR SELF DAMAGE.
KEEPING IN MIND THAT THIS PLACE MAY BE SECURED AND THAT IN CASES LIKE THESE, INVESTIGATIONS ARE PERFORMED, RUMORS WILL LEAK THAT BASULTO AND HIS PEOPLE CAUSED THE DAMAGE THEMSELVES TO COLLECT THE INSURANCE AND GET MORE MONEY FROM THEIR CONTRIBUTORS.
3.-) ATTEMPT TO DISABLE THEIR EQUIPMENT AND TRANSMISSION ANTENNAE ON LAND, THE ONES THEY USE TO COMMUNICATE WITH DURING THEIR MISSIONS, MAKING IT SEEM LIKE NEGLIGENCE.
NOTE: THESE THREE POINTS WERE REQUESTED OF CASTOR VIA RADIO MESSAGE. IT HAS TO BE DETERMINED WHAT HE HAS BEEN ABLE TO OBTAIN.
4.-) ANALYZE WITH CASTOR IF HE COULD INFORM US AHEAD OF TIME (DETERMINE PRECISE TIME) WHEN THE BROTHER’S TO THE RESCUE PLANES WILL BE TAKING OFF, WHO IS IN THEM AND IF THEY ARE GOING TO LAND AT A SPECIFIC PLACE. WHAT PERSONNEL KNOWS THIS INFORMATION BEFOREHAND. AT SOME POINT, CAN IT BE DETERMINED WHO PROVIDED THIS INFORMATION.
5.-) ACCORDING TO THE FEATURES OF THE PLANES, THEIR SECURITY SYSTEM, AS WELL AS THE HANGAR WHERE THEY ARE LOCATED, IF AT ANY SPECIFIC MOMENT HE COULD HIDE SOME TYPE OF MATERIAL AND KEEP IT THERE WITHOUT BEING DETECTED. WHAT SIZE WOULD THAT MATERIAL HAVE TO BE
OPERATION PARALLELO:
THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS OPERATION IS TO DEVELOP A SERIES OF ACTIONS AGAINST CIA AGENT JESUS CRUZA FLOR.
THESE ACTIONS WOULD BE:
1.-) PHOTOGRAPH OR VIDEO TAPE HIS HOUSE, LOCATED AT:
1440 S. BAYSHORE DR.
MIAMI, FLORIDA33131
TELEPHONE (305)358-0762
2.-) ONCE THE HOUSE IS PHOTOGRAPHED, MAKE VARIOUS THREATENING TELEPHONE CALLS (TWO OR THREE) CONCERNING HIS NEARING EXECUTION.
THESE CALLS WOULD BE AT DIFFERENT HOURS AND DIFFERENT DAYS. TRY TO USE THE EQUIPMENT (CALLED SCRAMBLER OR SOMETHING SIMILAR) TO CHANGE THE VOICE. PHONE BOOTHS SHOULD BE SELECTED THAT ALLOW A QUICK EXIT OUT OF THE AREA. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE MEASURES IS AGAINST A CIA AGENT AND HE COULD HAVE CALLER ID TO FIND OUT THE TELEPHONE NUMBER THAT IS CALLING AND THE ADDRESS WHERE IT IS LOCATED. ON THE OTHER HAND, KEEP IN MIND THE REST OF THE SECURITY MEASURES THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN IN THE BOOTH, SUCH AS FINGERPRINTS, HAIR, ODORS, SALIVA, DRESS, THAT THERE BE NO PERMANENT PERSONNEL IN THE AREA TO RECOGNIZE THE CALLER. DO NOT LEAVE THE CAR WHERE IT CAN BE OBSERVED, THE DURATION OF THE CALL. DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY QUESTIONS ASKED.
3.-) PREPARE AN ALLEGED BOOK-BOMB (BOOK, CABLE, BATTERIES, PLASTIQUE, ETC., AND SEND IT VIA EXPRESS MAIL. KEEP IN MIND TO WRAP THE BOOK IN A PROTECTIVE PAPER, WHICH IF THE ENVELOPE IS PASSED THROUGH THE X-RAY MACHINES, IMPEDES THE DETECTION OF WHAT IS INSIDE, AND THEREFORE IT WILL NOT BE ROUTED THROUGH THE MAIL.
KEEP IN MIND TO OBTAIN THE ENVELOPE, AS WELL AS THE POSTAGE, MANY DAYS IN ADVANCE AND SELECT A BUSY PLACE. USE A SPECIFIC CAMOUFLAGE.
STUDY THE MAILBOX WHERE THE PACKAGE WILL BE DEPOSITED, AS WELL AS THE TIME IT WILL BE DEPOSITED. ANALYZE HOW YOU WILL GET OUT OF THE AREA.
DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS KEEP THE SECURITY MEASURES IN MIND, SUCH AS THE ONES MENTIONED BEFORE, GIVING SPECIAL ATTENTION TO FINGER PRINTS DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS.
EVALUATE THE POSSIBILITY OF USING MANOLO TO MAKE THE CALL, THE TOPOS TO DEPOSIT THE ENVELOPE AND A-4 TO PREPARE THE BOOK-BOMB.
Extra-judicially executed by agents of the Cuban government on February 24, 1996
Why the review of these facts? Every year the Free Cuba Foundation holds a moment of silence at Florida International University on February 24th between 3:21pm and 3:27pm at the main fountain on campus in remembrance of Armando, Carlos, Mario, and Pablo who gave their lives in service to others. This tradition has been maintained for 14 years. The first vigils were held the week following the shootdown in 1996, but over time memories have faded, but there is more to it.
2008 Vigil at FIU organized by the student organization Free Cuba Foundation
Therefore in the interests of preserving some of these inconvenient and embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, and other records this essay will present the historical context in which Brothers to the Rescue came into existence and the events that led to the shootdown and some of the new information discovered over the past 14 years.
First Brothers to the Rescue formed in 1991 on account of the rafter (balsero) crisis. The specific event was the February 1991 death of fifteen year old adolescent named Gregorio Perez Ricardo, who fleeing Castro's Cuba on a raft, perished of severe dehydration in the hands of U.S. Coast Guard officers who were attempting to save his life. The organization was founded on May 13, 1991 as a non-profit corporation with the goal of conducting humanitarian search and rescue missions for rafters in the Florida Straits. It initially organized community fundraisers and marathons to obtain the funds to get started. A core group of 70 pilots and observers are made up of volunteers from many countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, England, France, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, the United States, Venezuela and former Cuban rafters. In December of 1993 Brothers to the Rescue inaugurated their hangar naming it after Gregorio. Brothers to the Rescue saved as many as 6,000 rafters.
The Cuban government likes to throw around the term terrorist, but does not want to accept when it has committed acts of state terrorism. The rafter crisis like the Germans fleeing over the Berlin Wall was an embarrassment to the dictatorship and like the East Germans there response was brutal. On July 6, 1993 according to The Miami Herald the Clinton Administration denounced the practice of Cuban marine patrols, seeking to stop refugees from reaching the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base by tossing grenades and shooting at defenseless fleeing swimmers then recovering some of the bodies with gaff hooks reporting that:
A State Department aide called the use of gaffs, usually used to pull gamefish into boats, to pull bodies from the water "an act of extreme cruelty." According to the U.S. protest, U.S. military guards surveying the bay have witnessed five separate incidents: * On June 19 at 2 p.m., U.S. guards, startled by the sounds of detonations, saw Cuban troops aboard patrol boats dropping grenades in the paths of several swimmers headed for the U.S. base. * On June 20 at 1:30 p.m., Cuban troops repeated the action, then strafed the water with machine-gun fire. * On June 26 at 11 a.m., three patrol boats surrounded a group of swimmers, lobbing grenades and spraying them with automatic weapons fire. At least three corpses were lifted out of the water with gaffs. * On June 27 at 11:30 a.m., guards aboard patrol boats lobbed two grenades into the water. * The same day, just before 3 p.m., a patrol boat opened automatic fire on a group of swimmers, who were later seen being pulled from the water. The swimmers' status was unknown.
This brutality against fleeing emigrants by the Castro regime would be exposed to the world on July 13, 1994 with the attack and sinking of the "13 de Marzo" tugboat an episode which cost the lives of the 37 men, women, and children whose names and ages are all accounted four. Some estimate that four more unidentified lost their lives bringing the total number to 41, but until the day that the remains are recovered. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights prepared an extensive report on the merits which begins:
In the early morning hours of July 13, 1994, four boats belonging to the Cuban State and equipped with water hoses attacked an old tugboat that was fleeing Cuba with 72 people on board. The incident occurred seven miles off the Cuban coast, opposite the port of Havana. The complaint also indicates that the Cuban State boats attacked the runaway tug with their prows with the intention of sinking it, while at the same time spraying everyone on the deck of the boat, including women and children, with pressurized water. The pleas of the women and children to stop the attack were in vain, and the old boat--named "13 de Marzo"--sank, with a toll of 41 deaths, including ten minors.
Angered by a massive anti-government demonstration on the Havana waterfront, Cuban President Fidel Castro warned that unless the U.S. stops offering asylum to fleeing Cubans, he will allow the free departure of those who want to leave the country. That could trigger a repeat of the 1980 Mariel exodus, which saw some 125,000 Cubans arrive in Florida within a few months, overwhelming U.S. officials. Said Castro: "We cannot continue to guard the coasts of the U.S."
Tens of thousands of Cubans began to flee in whatever floated which led the Clinton Administration to the negotiating tablewith the dictatorship to avert another Mariel. Refugee camps were set up in Guantanamo and the wet foot - dry foot policy came into existence to circumvent the Cuban Adjustment Act and begin the repatriation of Cubans. Up until this point Brothers to the Rescue had saved thousands of lives and would continue to patrol the Florida Straits even after the February 24, 1996 shootdown.
The controversy which the Cuban government tries to seize on along with apologists around the world is the July 13, 1995 overflight by Brothers to the Rescue of Havana. One year after the July 13, 1994 massacre Cuban exiles organized a flotilla to travel in a civic non-violent manner to the spot six miles off the Havana coastline where the "13 de Marzo" tugboat had been attacked and sunk to hold a religious service for the victims (the bodies have still not been recovered and returned to the families). The Brothers to the Rescue overflight of Havana, was in response to Cuban gunboats ramming the lead boat of the flotilla: Democracia, where they dropped some bumper stickers in Spanish that read "Comrades No. Brothers."
Following the July 13, 1995 flotilla Brothers to the Rescue intensified its efforts to promote Gandhian and Kingian civic non-violent resistance to the Cuban exile community in Miami by organizing two day long seminars. At the same time Cuban exiles, among them Brothers to the Rescue, sought to reach out to the Cuban dissident movement on the island. Cuban dissidents had announced on October 10, 1995 the intention to hold a national gathering of the opposition in Cuba on February 24, 1996. The coalition of groups named themselves the Cuban Council. Brothers to the Rescue in an open and transparent manner sent privately raised assistance to this coalition. In the days leading up to February 24 over a 100 dissidents were imprisoned in a nationwide crackdown.
That the Brothers to the Rescue pilots and followers met at a hangar at Opa Locka airport, located in south Florida, in the morning of 24 February 1996, and that at 9:12 a.m. the pilot of the Cessna 337C, registration N2456S, who was the organization’s flight operations chief, began presentation of the flight plans according to visual flight rules (VFR) prior to conducting a rafter rescue flight. However, due to other commitments on the part of some of the pilots, the flight did not leave at 10:15 a.m. as had been planned.
The pilots returned to the hangar after 11:00 a.m. and decided to have lunch before taking off. At 1:01 p.m. the three Cessna 337 aircraft — registration numbers N2506 (José Basulto, Arnaldo Iglesias, Andrés and Silvia Iriondo), N2456S (Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales), and N5485S (Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre) — took off to the west at 1:11, 1:12, and 1:13 p.m., respectively.
Once in the air, the three Cessnas contacted Miami AIFSS (call sign Miami Radio) to activate their flight plans. At 2:39 p.m. Cuban air defense radar detected aircraft to the north of Parallel 24N. At 2:43 p.m. two military interception airplanes were immediately prepared at the San Antonio de los Baños airbase. These airplanes — a two-man MiG-29 UB and a MiG-23 ML — were armed with heat-seeking air-to-air missiles and machine guns. They took off at 2:55 p.m. to patrol around 15 to 20 km north of the coast at altitudes of between 200 and 500 meters. The ICAO then concluded, inter alia, the following:
At 15:21 hours on 24 February 1996, N2456S was destroyed by an air-to-air missile fired by a Cuban MiG-29 military aircraft.
At 15:27 hours on 24 February 1996, N5485S was destroyed by an air-to-air missile fired by a Cuban MiG-29 military aircraft.
The recorded positions and track of the Majesty of the Seas, the observations by its crew and passengers, the position of the Tri-Liner relative to the Majesty of the Seas, and the resulting estimated locations of the shootdowns were considered to be the most reliable position estimates.
No corroborative evidence of the position of the Majesty of the Seas was obtained. With this qualification and based on the recorded positions of the Majesty of the Seas, N2456S was shot down approximately at position 23°29N 082°28W, 9 NM outside Cuban territorial airspace and N5485S was shot down approximately at position 23°30.1N 082°28.6W, 10 NM outside Cuban territorial airspace (emphasis added).
- Means other than interception were available to Cuba, such as radio communication, but had not been utilized. This conflicted with the ICAO principle that interception of civil aircraft should be undertaken only as a last resort.
- During the interceptions, no attempt was made to direct N2456S and N5485S beyond the boundaries of national air space, guide them away from a prohibited, restricted or danger area or instruct them to effect a landing at a designated aerodrome.
- In executing the interception, the standard procedures for maneuvering and signals by the military interceptor aircraft, in accordance with ICAO provisions and as published in AIP Cuba, were not followed.
- The Protocol introducing Article 3-bis into the Chicago Convention had not entered into force. Neither Cuba nor the United States had ratified it.
- The rule of customary international law that States must refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft applies irrespective of whether or not such aircraft is within the territorial airspace of that State.
Fidel Castro takes responsibility for the shoot down in an interview shortly afterward
"MX instructs that under no circumstances should German nor Castor fly with Brothers to the Rescue or another organization on days 24, 25, 26 and 27, coinciding with celebration of Concilio Cubano [a planned national conference of dissident groups in Havana], in order to avoid any incident of provocation that they may carry out and our response to it."
On February 27, 1996 three days after the shoot down then Congressman (now Senator ) Bob Menendez addressing the Congress outlined what had taken place the video is still available on C-Span:
It is now interesting to note that yesterday the Cuban Government openly bragged about a pilot who they sent to infiltrate Brothers to the Rescue and returned to Cuba the day before the incident. It is now apparent that that individual, Juan Pablo Roque, transmitted information to the Castro regime about the Brothers to the Rescue's flight plans for Saturday, and so we have here the facts developing of why I say that this act was premeditated murder and it is in fact an act of state terrorism.
You have an infiltrator pilot who tells the regime, Brothers to the Rescue are flying, they are flying one of their search-and-rescue missions, they will be in international airspace but near Cuban airspace, and therefore sets them up as clay pigeons. And you have a situation in which Castro's regime itself was thinking about the possibility of shooting down innocent civilians, asking a former retired general who was in Cuba about the United States reaction to such an event. Hence, the premeditation.
A couple of weeks after the shoot down on March 4, 1996 in a segment aired on PBS Jose Basulto representing Brothers to the Rescue maintained the organization's commitment to civic nonviolent resistance and Betty Ann Browser the journalist gave an analysis of the significance of Brothers to the Rescue nonviolent approach:
JOSE BASULTO, Brothers to the Rescue: We must not waver in our effort to bring assistance and support to those who struggle through non-violent means inside the island. It is there where our first priority lies.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Basulto supports a third approach to the Cuban question, based on the peaceful, non-violent principles of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. Basulto and other Cuban-American leaders believe that organizing flotillas, that by flying close to Cuban air space, and holding demonstrations in a non-violent manner will keep Cuban issues alive in the international arena. Over the weekend Basulto and the Brothers flew near Cuba to memorialize the four dead pilots. In the waters below, a flotilla braved eight-foot seas to remember the young Cuban-Americans. The television pictures were broadcast around the world...
US State Department official spied for Communist Cuba for 30 years
The 2009 CBS4 report raises troubling questions: US military jets had scrambled to intercept Cuban MIG's since at least 1992 and even had scrambled earlier the same day of the shoot down, no jets ever took off from Homestead Air Force base or any other base:
Despite the fact that military officials watched the shootdown on several different radar installations around the country, even as far away as California, and despite the fact two more MIG's chased Basulto's plane to within 3 minutes downtown Key West, the records show that no United States military jets ever scrambled to intercept the Cubans.
Ana Belen Montes was the senior intelligence expert on the Cuban military in the United States when the shootdown occurred she was called into the Pentagon to provide intelligence support. She received a personal call at the Pentagon in the midst of a crisis situation and announced that she would have to leave at 8:00pm and she did. Two rules at the Pentagon in the midst of a crisis: no personal calls and during the crisis you are suppose to stay at your post until your superior deems that you are no longer needed. Both these flags led to the investigation that uncovered a high ranking Cuban mole in the heart of the Pentagon.
Brothers to the Rescue founder, Jose Basulto in a 1998 interview held "the U.S. government culpable by neglect" and the Cuban dictator responsible demanding his indictment for murder adding "Castro can kill me, I'm living on spare time. I have been dead since 1996. They were like my own sons."
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