CNN
January 2, 2000
 
 
Louisiana man arrested after buzzing Havana

                  From Correspondent Susan Candiotti

                  MIAMI (CNN) -- A New Orleans man was in federal custody Sunday
                  after buzzing the Cuban capital Havana with a rented plane, dropping
                  leaflets urging an uprising against communist leader Fidel Castro.

                  Ly Tong was arrested upon his return to the Miami area Saturday. His
                  plane was surrounded by U.S. Customs agents as it touched down at a
                  Miami-area airport about 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

                  Tong, 51, is a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Vietnam in 1984. He rented
                  a plane from Tamiami Airport in Dade County, Florida, on Friday; spent the
                  night in Key West; then flew to Cuba shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday, U.S.
                  Customs spokesman Michael Sheehan said.

                  A U.S. Customs radar center in Long Beach, California tracked the small
                  plane as it flew from Florida to Cuba. So did Cuban authorities, who sent
                  two Soviet-built MiG fighters to monitor the plane.

                  The Cubans took no action, but contacted the Federal Aviation
                  Administration, Sheehan said. U.S. officials shadowed Tong's flight as well,
                  tracking him with a Customs and a Blackhawk helicopter.

                  The typewritten orange, red and pink leaflets dropped from the plane were
                  in Spanish and English, and contained phrases that in effect said "Castro
                  should be overthrown, communism is wrong," Sheehan said.

                  The pamphlets were signed: "Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary
                  Anti-Communist Forces of the World," followed by an illegible signature.

                  Sheehan said Tong, who described himself as a "freedom fighter," voluntarily
                  surrendered his pilot's license.

                  His flight came nearly four years after Cuba shot down four Florida-based
                  exiles in international airspace after they flew over Cuba. The men were
                  members of the anti-Castro group Brothers to the Rescue.

                  That group's spokesman, Jose Basulto, said Tong is not associated with his
                  group. But Basulto said Tong "sounds like a legitimate anti-Communist to
                  me."