Herald Staff Report

Brothers to the Rescue founder Jose Basulto said Monday that he had
intended to drop leaflets on last month's Baltimore Orioles exhibition game in
Cuba -- but the Federal Aviation Administration stopped him by staging a
snap inspection.

``The FAA showed up at the airport arguing that they wanted to do an
inspection; they delayed us for two, two-and-a-half hours,'' Basulto said. The
Bay of Pigs veteran called the inspection ``extremely unusual -- they had never
done it before,'' and said his lawyer was preparing a protest.

The FAA in Atlanta, whose region covers South Florida, disagreed. ``All
flights south of the Straits of Florida are monitored closely,'' said
spokeswoman Tanya Wagner. ``The March 28 ramp inspection was not out
of the ordinary.''

Fearing another attempt, Major League Baseball has asked the FAA to
restrict air traffic over the May 3 rematch between the Cuban national team
and the Orioles. FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the agency does not have
the power to shut down airspace and has referred Major League Baseball
executives to the U.S. Secret Service, which does have the power. The Secret
Service in Washington, D.C., did not return a call placed by The Herald's
Miami office on Monday.

Basulto, meanwhile, said he was undecided on whether he would try to drop
the tens of thousands of unused leaflets on Camden Yards. They say ``La
Patria es de Todos'' (``The homeland belongs to all'') on one side and reprint
Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the other with the
exhortation, ``¡Cubano ¡lucha por tus derechos!'' (``Cuban: Fight for your
rights!'') Article 14 grants people ``in the event of persecution . . . the right to
seek asylum . . . in any country.''

The Brothers have released leaflets that fell over Havana at least twice before.
The latest was Feb. 24, the third anniversary of Cuba's downing of two
Brothers to the Rescue airplanes.
 

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald