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By Tim Reynolds. Associated Press. Posted on Thu, Feb. 27,
2003 in The Miami Herald.
The attorney for the lone survivor of the 1996 shootdown of three planes by
Cuban fighter jets asked U.S. officials Wednesday to remove President Fidel
Castro from power.
Larry Klayman, chairman of the Washington-based legal group Judicial Watch,
said the Bush administration should consider the Cuban dictatorship as much of a
threat as the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
''As we get ready to go into war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein, we have to
remember that just 90 miles from Miami, we have a dictator that's even worse
than Saddam Hussein,'' Klayman said.
Klayman represents José Basulto, the founder of the Cuban exile group
Brothers to the Rescue and the lone survivor of the 1996 shootdown. Basulto
testified before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra on Wednesday as the damages
portion of his trial against Castro and the Cuban government began.
Basulto received a default judgment against Cuba last month in a suit filed
under a 1996 federal law that helps victims of terrorism sue foreign governments
that support terrorism.
The families of three of the slain fliers, Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos
Costa and Mario de la Peña, 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.
''It has affected us tremendously, and it will continue to affect us,''
Basulto said. ``As I said in court, I make myself a quest for truth and justice
for Armando, Carlos, Mario and Pablo, who were like my own family.''
Basulto said he will donate all money he receives to Cuban dissident groups.
''It's going to be a very big judgment,'' Klayman said. ``And when that
judgment is entered, we're going to collect against many frozen [Cuban] assets
in this country, and we're going to be able to collect against accounts of
companies in this country that are doing business with Castro.''
The slain fliers were Brothers to the Rescue members and were flying over
international waters to search for migrant rafters in February 1996 when two
Cuban fighter jets shot their planes down. | 
