By Jim Burns. CNS Senior Staff Writer. September 06, 2000.
(CNSNews.com) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in New York City for the United Nations Millennium Summit, but if a Cuban exile group gets its way, he may end up in a New York jail cell.
The Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue wants Castro charged in the deaths of four pilots, all members of Brothers to the Rescue, who were shot down by Cuban fighter jets in 1996.
The group has taken its case to New York City police as well as to FBI offices in New York City.
Brothers to the Rescue contends that Castro should be treated like Chile's former dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in London on a Spanish government warrant that sought to try him for human rights abuses.
The group has the support of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who told a news conference on Tuesday that Brothers to the Rescue should take its case to the FBI.
Giuliani told reporters he believes Castro could be charged in New York because it is the first federal jurisdiction he has entered. The mayor had no further comment on the matter Wednesday.
Jose Basulto, who founded Brothers to the Rescue, spoke with CNSNews.com Wednesday morning, just after leaving New York's 17th police precinct, the one that covers the area where Castro is staying.
Basulto said it's absurd that "a confessed criminal is walking the streets of New York and the people he tried to kill like myself are here to make the report to the police."
Basulto was in one of the three planes Cuban forces attacked four years ago. Two planes were shot down and four Brothers to the Rescue members were killed. Basulto was the pilot of the third aircraft that escaped without damage. The group was on a mission to seek out and rescue Cuban refugees
trying to reach the United States on rafts.
Basulto complains that U.S. officials haven't even interrogated Castro.
"We went to the police station and we went to the offices of the FBI and delivered a large amount of information regarding not only the crime itself but also the reasons we believe why no criminal action has been taken in the case."
Basulto is demanding that the U.S. government charge Castro with murder "for ordering the shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes in international air space as documented by the United Nations in 1996."
However, United Nations officials said Castro enjoys diplomatic immunity from arrest while he's in New York on United Nations business.
But Brothers to the Rescue attorney Roberto Villasante believes the Cuban leader could be arrested in New York City.
"Our position is that the immunity that he [Castro] may seek is not total and is not absolute. Even though he is a sitting head of state, he should certainly be detained and interrogated to determine whether he qualifies for the immunity. I don't think murder is an act of state that is
protected by the diplomatic immunity that he has," Villasante told CNSNews.com.
Villasante also said it's conceivable that Castro could be arrested in New York, given the fact that Mayor Giuliani is receptive to such an idea. He said Giuliani understands the problem.
"What we have done is gone forward with the most basic elemental process of prosecuting a crime -- which is to walk into a police station and announce to police officers that someone who has attempted to kill my client is in this jurisdiction and he should be detained," Villasante
said.
As legal precedent, Villasante cited the United States arresting Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega in 1989. Noriega was brought to Florida to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
Villasante said the Noriega case is proof that a sitting head of state can be arrested when his acts were declared to be nothing more than drug trafficking. By analogy, I think it is conceivable" that Castro could also be arrested, Villasante said.
Castro's New York itinerary is being kept secret. He reportedly will address the United Nations Millennium Summit sometime Wednesday, and on Friday, he is expected to attend a church service in Manhattan.
Castro also plans to meet with several Americans, including New York Reps. Charles Rangel and Jose Serrano, both Democrats; and the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, formerly with the National Council of Churches.
Brown was a key player in returning 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba after a 7-month legal battle. | 