By Gail Epstein Nieves . gepstein@herald.com. Published
Thursday, March 8, 2001, in the Miami Herald
Even before Brothers to the Rescue founder José Basulto made his
first known leafletting excursion over Havana in 1995, a U.S. aviation official
warned Basulto that Cuba "might force him to land or shoot him down'' if he
strayed into Cuban airspace.
Basulto responded, "Chuck, you know I always play by the rules, but you
must understand I have a mission in life to perform,'' according to testimony
Wednesday in the Cuban spy trial.
"Chuck'' was Charles H. Smith, a now-retired enforcement officer with
the Federal Aviation Administration who testified about all the admonitions
Basulto got prior to the Feb. 24, 1996, shoot-down that claimed the lives of
four Brothers fliers.
Asked by defense attorney Paul McKenna if Basulto had heeded his warnings,
Smith said: "Unfortunately, he did not.''
Basulto's Cessna was the only one of three planes Cuba didn't shoot from the
sky that fateful day. Evidence indicates his plane, but not the others, entered
Cuban airspace during the shoot-down flight.
Documents introduced in the trial documented at least seven occasions
between July 7 and Oct. 18, 1995, on which the FAA and the U.S. State Department
issued public statements or made direct contact with Brothers to the Rescue to
reiterate that Cuba was intent on defending its boundaries from intruders.
Cuba, angry that Basulto dropped leaflets over Havana on July 13, 1995, had
repeated for months that "any boats from abroad can be sunk and any
aircraft downed.''
The internal memos and e-mails show that FAA personnel in Miami and
Washington were increasingly rankled by Cuban allegations that Brothers' planes
were repeatedly violating Cuban airspace -- allegations that Basulto still
denies.
HIGH-LEVEL MEETINGS
At the same time, the documents show, the State Department was pushing the
FAA to figure out a way to ground Basulto and avoid the possibility of a
confrontation. Concern spiked every time a new flotilla or remembrance was
planned: Sept. 2 and Oct. 21, 1995, and Feb. 24, 1996.
Rushed high-level meetings were held about the matter, including not only
the FAA but the FBI and Richard Nuccio, President Bill Clinton's Cuba advisor at
the time.
An internal FAA communication the day before the shoot-down, titled Cuba
Alert, reported that the State Department was saying, "it would not be
unlikely that the [Brothers would] attempt an unauthorized flight into Cuban
airspace tomorrow, in defiance of the government of Cuba and its policies.
"State has also indicated that the government of Cuba would be less
likely to show restraint [in an unauthorized flight scenario] this time
around,'' the memo said.
Nuccio and other federal officials have always maintained that while they
had concerns, they had no hard information suggesting a shoot-down would occur
-- especially over international waters. Nuccio is on McKenna's witness list and
could testify.
Basulto also is expected to testify soon.
HINDERED BY RULES
Nevertheless, the FAA administrators appeared hamstrung by their own rules
requiring solid evidence of wrongdoing before enforcement action could be taken.
"You don't do anything [punitive] until somebody does something''
presumed to be wrong, said Smith, who spent 40 years with the FAA. "Then
you investigate.''
The FAA started investigating Basulto in August 1995.
The agency asked Cuba for radar plots and other confirmation of an alleged
incursion on Jan. 13, 1996. Two days later, Cuba provided that and more,
including photocopies of flight plans and transcribed aircraft communications.
But it took until May 16, 1996 -- nine months -- for the FAA to issue an "emergency
order of revocation'' of Basulto's pilot's license, Smith testified.
McKenna's client, alleged spy Gerardo Hernández, is accused of
conspiring with Cuba to murder the shoot-down victims. Four other codefendants
are accused of spying for Cuba.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 