THE Cuban government has demanded the immediate return
                   of an AN-2 fumigation aircraft that illegally transported a
                   group of people, including a minor, to Key West, Florida on
                   Monday, November 11.

                   A statement from Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
                   published by the press on Tuesday, November 12, informing
                   that on the same Monday, the island’s authorities requested
                   in a diplomatic note the return of the perpetrators of the
                   hijack, the aircraft and the rest of the illegal emigrants.

                   Cuba also requested Washington to present all the
                   information available to its authorities as soon as possible.

                   Aircraft hijacking is clearly categorized as a terrorist crime by
                   the 1970 agreement to halt their illicit seizure, which both the
                   United States and Cuba have signed, declared the Cuban
                   Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

                   The note holds the United States responsible for the
                   commission of crimes such as this, due to its consistent
                   upholding and systematic use of the Cuban Adjustment Act,
                   which grants privileged and exceptional treatment to illegal
                   Cuban émigrés.

                   It is no coincidence, the statement continues, that this act
                   took place within days of President George Bush’s statement
                   during a Washington press conference, in which he defended
                   the existence of “special” migratory legislation for Cubans,
                   very different to the treatment received by illegal immigrants
                   from other countries, who are violently rejected by the U.S.
                   authorities with no exception whatsoever.

                   Reiterating the spent rhetoric of the last 43 years, the note
                   continues, President Bush insisted on the lie that the Cuban
                   government persecutes illegal immigrants returned by the
                   U.S. Coast Guard, in order to justify accepting the largest
                   possible number of illegal emigrants from Cuba, 90% of them
                   fruit of the illegal trafficking of persons aboard pirate yachts
                   coming from that country.

                   The defense of such a degenerate and criminal legislation by
                   the United States president himself, the statement adds,
                   constitutes a powerful motivation to engage in acts as
                   serious as aircraft hijacking.

                   Similarly, it points to the contradiction implied by the White
                   House practicing a policy that stimulates air piracy and
                   hijackings at a time when great efforts are being made to
                   reinforce U.S. national security and to protect its borders and
                   airspace.

                   The note also recalls that currently, in a period of open war
                   on terrorism, those directly responsible for acts of terrorism
                   as terrible as the explosion in mid-flight of a Cubana de
                   Aviation passenger plane in 1976, killing all 73 persons on
                   board, are still living in Miami.

                   The statement points out that the migratory agreements
                   signed by both countries in 1994 explicitly reaffirm a common
                   interest in preventing dangerous exits from Cuba that
                   endanger human lives, as well as a U.S. commitment to
                   discontinue the practice of granting provisional admission to
                   all Cuban emigrants reaching its territory by irregular means,
                   and to take effective measures to oppose and prevent the use
                   of violence by people who attempt to arrive or arrive from
                   Cuba via the forced diversion of aircraft or shipping.

                   In its final section, the Foreign Ministry note denounces the
                   U.S. lack of political will to negotiate agreements proposed on
                   various occasions by Cuba that might facilitate confronting
                   terrorism and illegal immigration.

                   Likewise, it reiterates its willingness to continue to abide by
                   the Migratory Agreements signed by both countries, calls for
                   an end to the Cuban Adjustment Act and, in strict compliance
                   with these agreements signed by both countries, the
                   immediate return of the hijackers, the rest of the illegal
                   emigrants and the hijacked aircraft. (FCA).