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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Three Cuban airmen indicted for shooting down
civilian planes
Catherine Wilson. Associated Press
MIAMI - A Cuban general and two fighter pilots
have been indicted for shooting down two civilian
planes in 1996 over the Florida straits, killing
four men who were looking for boaters fleeing
the communist island, federal prosecutors announced
Thursday.
Gen. Ruben Martinez Puente, who was then head
of the Cuban air force, and pilots Lorenzo Alberto
Perez-Perez and Francisco Perez-Perez were named
in an indictment to be released later Thursday,
the U.S. Attorney's office announced.
The U.S. Attorney's Office planned to announce
the indictment at 3 p.m. in Miami. The men were
charged with murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens
and destruction of aircraft. If convicted, they
face up to life in prison or the death penalty.
The Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down
by two Cuban MiGs in Feb. 24, 1996, over international
waters as three aircraft searched for migrant
rafters. All four men on the planes died.
A third plane, carrying Brothers to the Rescue
leader Jose Basulto and two observers, was not
hit. On several flights before that day, members
of the group had violated Cuba's airspace and
dropped leaflets supporting human rights over
the island.
The group halted its flying operations earlier
this year, citing costs.
Basulto called the indictment "a step in
the right direction." Cuban-American activists
have been lobbying for the indictment of Cuban
President Fidel Castro in the attack since the
leader of a Cuban spy ring was convicted in 2001
of warning agents to stay off the group's planes
days before the planes were shot down.
Spy ring chief Gerardo Hernandez is appealing
his murder conspiracy conviction and life sentence
in the deaths of the Miami-based fliers.
The spy ring conspired to lure the Brothers to
the Rescue "aircraft into flying on the day
of the shootdown by ensuring that the FBI would
not stop the flights," U.S. Attorney Marcos
Jimenez said in a statement.
"The fact that the indictment is taking
place is a good measure because it's sending a
signal to Cuba," Basulto said Thursday. "I
expect the indictment of Castro takes place shortly
because he's the one that ordered the shootdown
and that is well-documented."
Some Cuban-Americans, including several Congress
members and state lawmakers, have recently been
critical of President Bush's administration for
not taking a tougher stance against Castro. A
group of 13 Florida state legislators told Bush
in a letter that his steadfast support in the
Cuban-American community could be endangered in
the 2004 presidential election. Losing that support
could be critical in carrying Florida, which Bush
did by 537 votes in 2000, giving him the White
House.
Joe Garcia, the executive director of the Cuban
American National Foundation, said the indictments
prove that murder will not be tolerated.
"We are exceedingly pleased that while justice
may be slow, it has come," Garcia said. "We
are glad that the democratic process works and
when you petition your government, government
works."
Officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington
did not return phone calls seeking comment. That
office represents the Cuban government in the
United States.
Days after the shooting, Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez
said the Brothers to the Rescue pilots ignored
his warnings to leave Cuban airspace before he
shot them down.
He told Cuban state television that on orders
from controllers, he intercepted the aircraft,
identified them, warned them, and told controllers
they were ignoring his warnings.
"We tried to dissuade their crew members,
but they continued to dangerously approach the
Cuban coast and then we received the order to
interrupt the flight of the first aircraft,"
he said at the time. "Afterward, we conducted
the same operation with the second plane, which
also refused to change its direction."
The families of three of the slain flyers, Armando
Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa and Mario de la Pena,
sued under the federal law and won $188 million
in damages in 1997. In April 2000, a judge awarded
them $38 million from frozen U.S. bank accounts
belonging to Cuban telephone companies.
The family of the fourth man, Pablo Morales,
could not sue because he was not a U.S. citizen.
Brothers to the Rescue founder says he'll invest
money from shootdown court award in Cuba -- whenever
he gets it
By Tere Figueras. Tfigueras@herald.com
Brothers to the Rescue founder José Basulto,
who has yet to receive a monetary award in his
judgment against the Cuban government for the
the shoot-down of two of the exile group's planes,
already has plans for the money: He will give
it back to Cuba.
Basulto, who survived the 1996 shoot-down that
killed four South Florida men, announced Thursday
that the as-yet undetermined award will be placed
in a trust to be used to ''promote democracy''
on the island.
The trust will also be used to pay for infrastructure
in a post-Castro Cuba, said Basulto.
The Brothers for Democracy trust fund counts
among its board members 36 business people, clergymen,
activists and others -- including singer Willy
Chirino -- who have pledged their services to
helping Cubans on the island.
Basulto, who is represented in the federal case
by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch,
won the judgment against Cuba and its air force
by default in January when representatives did
not show up in court.
In June Basulto asked the court to award him
$76 million of Cuban assets frozen by the U.S.,
citing pain and suffering. Basulto said Thursday
he is unsure how much of the award he will actually
receive -- or when he can expect to receive it.
TV Martí may soon switch to satellite
U.S. trying to stop Cuba's signal-jamming
By Nancy San Martin. Nsanmartin@herald.com.
The Bush administration may soon begin using
satellite transmission of TV Martí to make
the U.S.-funded broadcasts more accessible to
Cuban viewers and less susceptible to Cuban government
jamming, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
''It's possible that this is going to be happening
soon,'' the U.S. official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, told The Herald.
Officials at the Broadcasting Board of Governors
(BBG), the federal agency that oversees all U.S.
nonmilitary international broadcasts, confirmed
earlier Wednesday that the agency has been exploring
using a satellite signal for TV Martí transmissions.
But the BBG and other U.S. government branches
are reviewing the legal aspects of such broadcasts
to make sure that they would not violate international
laws or communications regulations, the U.S. official
added.
Cuba now easily jams regular TV Martí
signals, broadcast from a balloon in the Florida
Keys. Satellite broadcasts would be more easily
received by the up to 15,000 satellite dishes
estimated to be in use across the island. Cuba
also jams Radio Martí signals broadcast
on short-wave and AM frequencies.
U.S. broadcasters, meanwhile, said they were
skeptical about the Cuban government's assertion
earlier this month that Iranian diplomatic facility
in Cuba had been responsible for jamming U.S.-based
satellite TV transmissions to Iran.
Cuba had said it had nothing to do with the month-long
interference. The Farsi-language broadcasts by
the U.S. government's Voice of America and four
Los Angeles-based stations included programs attacking
Tehran's Shiite Muslim government. The jamming
of the Iranian signals ceased Aug. 3.
Broadcasters affected said the disruptions would
be difficult to do without the government's knowledge.
''That equipment for jamming is not available
at the market,'' Fariborz Abbassi, owner of one
of the affected private Los Angeles stations,
said in a telephone interview. "I don't believe
what the Cuban government is saying.''
The jamming was first detected July 5 and became
more pronounced amid growing student protests
in Iran against the Tehran government. At the
time, the Iranian government said the broadcasts
were an interference in its internal affairs and
accused the U.S.-based Iranian opposition of inflaming
the protests.
Concerned that jamming out of Cuba could resume,
the four affected California-based television
stations owned by Iranian Americans are considering
switching to an alternate satellite.
''We're trying to find the most suitable satellite
that won't be jammable,'' said Kourosh Abbassi,
a spokesman at the family-owned Azadi Television.
"If they've done it once, they can do it
again. I don't really trust the Cuban government.''
Abbassi said specialists he consulted had varying
opinions about the level of sophistication needed
to jam the satellite signals. Some believed such
jamming would require military-type equipment,
but others said the jamming could be done with
a small satellite dish and basic computer hardware.
U.S. officials, who have been struggling with
Cuban jamming of TV and Radio Martí for
a decade, have been studying ways to enhance the
transmissions.
Cubans' truck was sunk to prevent copycats
By Adriana Cordovi. Acordovi@herald.com
If the 1951 Chevy pickup that carried a group
of Cubans more than halfway through the Florida
Straits had been salvaged instead of sunk, Coast
Guard officials feared it would have encouraged
a surge of migrants.
Citing concerns that the truck could become a
''monument,'' Coast Guard officials told The Herald's
Editorial Board on Wednesday that they thought
it might inspire Cubans on the island to risk
their own lives and make the same voyage.
So the Coast Guard sprayed the bright-green 1951
Chevy with machine-gun fire, sinking it offshore.
The Chevy was ''an encouragement for people in
Cuba to think they need to make it to the United
States,'' said Rear Adm. Harvey Johnson, the Coast
Guard's district commander. "It's very dangerous
to come across in a rubber raft.''
Cuban exile leaders in Miami on Wednesday called
the sinking ''tragic'' and said the Coast Guard
had ''defied their purpose'' because photographs
of the Chevy were seen around the world. The truck
was already a monument, they said.
''That's precisely what it's become,'' said Ninoska
Pérez Castellón, spokeswoman for
the Cuban Liberty Council.
The Coast Guard initially did not even want to
release its photos of the truck to the public,
but were persuaded to by U.S. diplomats in Cuba,
said a State Department spokesperson who asked
not to be named.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American
National Foundation, became irate at hearing the
Coast Guard's explanation.
"Everyone in this community is a living
monument. If they thought that when they sank
it, that's pathetic.
''What that Chevy would have represented was
the struggle for freedom,'' Garcia said. "Not
some kind of incentive for people to leave.''
The green flatbed truck, tires still on, was
mounted on pontoons made of 55-gallon drums. It
sported a propeller attached to the truck's drive
shaft.
The Coast Guard spotted it 40 miles south of
Key West on July 16 and sank it.
Immediately afterward, Coast Guard officials
called the boat ''a hazard of transportation''
and said it was too heavy to tow to land.
The Coast Guard took the 12 Cubans back to Cuba
and gave them papers to fill out to be allowed
to emigrate legally. The men promptly turned in
the paperwork to the U.S. Interests Section and
are still awaiting a response.
Herald staff writer Gail Epstein-Nieves contributed
to this report.
U.S. seeks to improve transmission of TV Martí
By Nancy San Martin. Nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Wed, Aug. 20, 2003
The Bush administration will likely begin using
satellite transmissions of TV Martí to
make the U.S.-funded broadcasts more readily available
for Cuban viewers and less susceptible to Cuban
government interference, a U.S. official said
Wednesday.
''It's possible that this is going to be happening
soon,'' the U.S. official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, told The Herald.
Cuba now easily jams regular TV Martí
signals, broadcast from a balloon in the Florida
Keys. Satellite broadcasts would be available
via as many as 15,000 satellite dishes across
the island.
U.S. broadcasters are meanwhile skeptical about
the Cuban government's assertion that it had nothing
to do with the interference with U.S. satellite
television broadcasts to Iran, which jammed both
U.S.-government and Los Angeles-based private
programs for nearly a month.
The jamming of the Iranian signals ceased Aug.
3 after Cuban officials told the State Department
the interference was coming out of an Iranian
diplomatic facility in or near Havana. The Cuban
government has denied any role in the disruptions
of the Persian-language satellite broadcasts to
Iran, often critical of Tehran's Muslim theocratic
government.
But broadcasters affected say the disruptions
would be difficult to do without the government's
knowledge.
''That equipment for jamming is not available
at the market,'' Fariborz Abbassi, owner of one
of the affected private Los Angeles stations,
said in a telephone interview. "I don't believe
what the Cuban government is saying.''
The jamming was first detected on July 5 and
became pronounced amid growing protests in Iran
against the Tehran government. The disruption
affected U.S.-funded Voice of America programs
out of Washington and private broadcasts from
Los Angeles. The broadcasters use Telstar-12 satellite
to beam their signals to Iran.
Concerned that jamming out of Cuba could resume,
the four affected California-based television
stations owned by Iranian Americans are considering
switching to an alternate satellite.
''We're trying to find the most suitable satellite
that won't be jammable,'' said Kourosh Abbassi,
a spokesman at the family-owned Azadi Television.
"If they've done it once, they can do it
again. I don't really trust the Cuban government.''
Specialists consulted by Azadi Television had
varying opinions about the level of sophistication
needed for effective blocking of transmissions
out of Cuba. Some told the station such jamming
would require military-type equipment. Others
said the jamming could be done with a small satellite
dish and basic computer hardware.
Prolonged interference had not previously been
an issue with Telstar-12.
Disruptions generally occur when various sources
try to transmit to the same satellite and overload
it with signals, experts said. The interruptions
are usually easily fixed but the persistent and
prolonged jamming out of Cuba, U.S. authorities
determined, was "deliberate and malicious.''
U.S. officials, who have been struggling with
Cuban jamming of TV and Radio Martí for
a decade, have been studying ways to enhance the
transmissions.
Officials at the Broadcasting Board of Governors,
the federal agency that oversees all U.S. nonmilitary
international broadcasts, confirmed Wednesday
that the agency is exploring using a satellite
signal for TV Martí transmissions, but
declined to give further details.
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