Events recall day four exiles lost lives
BY ELAINE DE VALLE
Truth. Justice.
Those remain the goals for the friends and supporters of the Brothers to
the Rescue fliers shot down
six years ago as they gather this weekend for anniversary commemorations.
At Opa-locka Airport on Saturday, the organization took the opportunity
to call again for the indictment
of Fidel Castro over the ''murderous act'' Feb. 24, 1996, when Cuban government
MiGs shot down two
unarmed, civilian Cessnas belonging to the exile group in international
airspace.
Four men -- Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales -- were killed.
Brothers founder José Basulto, who survived that day's attack in
a third plane, directed his call for the
indictments -- not only for Castro, but for his brother Raul and the MiG
pilots who later boasted
profanely -- to President Bush and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, saying both
should pay attention to the
wishes of Cuban-American voters.
The organization also said it would present its first-ever Truth and Justice
Award to Judicial Watch
executive director Larry Klayman for his efforts to get an indictment.
At least 12 other exile organizations -- including Agenda Cuba, the Cuban
American National
Foundation, Democracy Movement and the Cuban Democratic Directorate --
pledged their support.
The Democracy Movement's Ramón Saúl Sánchez said two
of that organization's planes would join two
Brothers planes on a memorial flight today to a spot about 28 miles north
of the Cuban coast, near
where the two planes were blown apart.
Basulto also said the organization planned to broadcast the flight on its
weekly radio show, En Primera
Persona (In the First Person) beginning at 1 p.m. today on WQBA-AM (1140).
Basulto also used the anniversary to announce plans for a billboard campaign
that he said will educate
Americans about Castro's ties to terrorists. He unveiled the first design:
four photographs -- Saddam
Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Moammar Gadhafi and Castro -- under the question,
'Who said in Iran, in
May 2001...? `Iran and Cuba can bring America to its knees.' '' The answer
is in the bigger color
photograph of a stern-faced Castro, finger raised.
Basulto said he will collect donations from the community to place billboards
across the country,
particularly in states -- such as Illinois, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island
and Washington -- from which
elected officials and business people have recently visited the communist-ruled
island.
At the news conference, the mother of Pablo Morales sat mostly silent.
Eva Barbas, 77, does not speak
English and could not understand most of the words that were spoken. But
she understood the
context.
''I ask President Bush, as a mother, to take pity on me and bring justice
to those who assassinated my
son,'' Barbas said.