Cuban community in South Florida mourn 30 years since Brothers to the Rescue plane shootout, say justice hasn’t been served
It was the worst of nights – 30 years ago on Feb. 24, 1996.
A community in mourning.
The Brothers to the Rescue hanger at the Opa-locka Airport was packed with loved ones, families and tearful members of the Cuban exile community.
Earlier in the day, two Brothers to the Rescue twin-engine Cessnas were shot out of the sky by Cuban MiGs. All that remained for an instant was a trail of smoke over international waters north of the Cuban coast.
Rita Basulto’s husband, Jose Basulto – the leader of Brothers to the Rescue – and three others flying with him, escaped the aerial ambush.
“I remember saying to Sylvia Iriondo in the plane, ‘We are next,'” Basulto told CBSMiami News.
Killed in the shoot down were pilots Carlos Costa and Mario de la Peña, and observers Armando Alejandre and Pablo Morales.
Pilot Mario de la Peña’s mother, Miriam de la Peña, told CBS News Miami, “the worst is that they got away with it. It is 30 years later and that’s why we cannot forget Communism is evil and we must remember that.”
Bothers to the Rescue volunteer pilots flew over the Straits of Florida spotting Cuban refugees making the desperate escape to the United States.
The group was a thorn in the side of Fidel Castro, and the Castro Brothers took action.
“We were completely penetrated by agents of the Cuban government,” Jose Basulto told CBS News Miami.
In a picture from the Brothers to the Rescue website, Basulto is seen with Juan Pablo Roque and Rene Gonzalez – both members of Brothers to the Rescue.
And both were Cuban spies.
The Castro Brothers ordered the shoot down. The Cuban spies provided the flight information and the MiG pilots carried out the mission.
Former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis warns we should not forget that the Cuban Spy Network is still very active in South Florida.
“I maintain then, back when I was the U.S. Attorney, and now that the, the Cuban government is extraordinarily active in the espionage field,” Lewis said.
The federal government took down the spy network and indicted the pilots, but not the Castro Brothers.
That still stings 30 years later.
The local U.S. Attorney’s office was ready to indict.
“Many in the intelligence community and the state department and elsewhere frankly were very concerned about how strong our response was.”
In short the U.S. government was hesitant to bring the Castro brothers to justice. But 30 years later, with Fidel Castro long in his grave, there is a call to renew the case against Raul Castro.
South Florida’s Cuban American members of Congress led by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart have urged the Trump Justice Department to revisit the case and have Raul Castro indicted in the U.S. justice system.
Diaz-Balart spoke at a press conference with other members of Congress saying, “We are not willing to forget when people are murdered in cold blood and pretend it didn’t happen, and I looked the other way.”
Meanwhile, as the memories of the shoot down fade, Rita Basulto told CBS News Miami that “this generation, there is a huge number of people who don’t know anything about it.”
Husband Jose Basulto, whose plane was chased north across the Florida Straits by a Cuban jet, said Cuba’s Communist leadership is not above another act of aerial terror.
“Something that could be repeated. It is possible. So this is something to remind people here in the U.S and the government this could happens again, Basulto said.
One of the surviving Brothers to the Rescue airplanes is now on display at Hialeah Gardens Museum Honoring Brigade 2506.
