Published February 24, 2011
Fox News Latino
Brothers to the Resue says it aims to rescue Cuban rafters making their
way to the United States. The Cuban government accuses them of entering
Cuban airspace and of terrorist acts.
AP
Brothers to the Resue says it aims to rescue Cuban rafters making their
way to the United States. The Cuban government accuses them of entering
Cuban airspace and of terrorist acts.
Memorials will be held in Miami today over the 15th anniversary of the
Brothers to the Rescue tragedy -- when the Cuban military's shot down
exile planes dropping pro-democracy leaflets over Cuba.
Four members of the organization were killed.
Outrage among Cuban exiles over the 1996 shooting halted the Clinton
administration's tentative efforts to reach out to the communist
government and paved the way for the Helms Burton Act, which turned the
U.S. embargo to Cuba into permanent law. Previously it had been
maintained under an executive order that a president could rescind at
any time.
Relatives and supporters planned to join survivors and other members of
the Brothers to the Rescue group at the Opa-locka Airport from where the
planes took off in 1996 and later at a memorial in Hialeah Thursday
afternoon. The group had been warned about flying over Cuban airspace
but says its pilots were not over Cuban airspace when they were attacked.
During the 1990s, the group also helped identify and rescue Cubans
fleeing the island by boat through the treacherous Florida Straits.
The Hermanos al Recate anniversary comes one day after the first
anniversary of the death of Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata
Tamayo following an 83-day hunger strike. He was imprisoned for
disrespecting authority.
Zapata's death drew worldwide attention to the plight of the island's
dissidents in advance of that anniversary, the Cuban government detained
Zapata's mother for 12 hours.
On Wednesday, the U.S. issued a statement condemning the treatment of
Zapata's mother and commemorating his death. The statement did not
include any reference to the Brother to the Rescue anniversary.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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