[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H1282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            AN IMPORTANT DAY IN THE LIVES OF ENSLAVED CUBANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida [Ms. Ros-Lehtinen] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, certainly today has been a very 
important day in the lives of the enslaved Cuban people, people who 
daily cry out for freedom, for democracy, and for justice, because 
today we are going to have the privilege of inviting family members of 
the four pilots who were mercilessly cut down, shot down from the sky 
by Fidel Castro with his Migs.
  Together with the chairman of the Committee on International 
Relations, the gentleman from New York Ben Gilman and the Western 
Hemisphere Subcommittee chairman, the gentleman from Indiana, Dan 
Burton, I have invited the family members of the four deceased pilots 
murdered by Cuban tyrant Fidel Castro aboard the Brothers to the Rescue 
aircraft to testify before a congressional hearing of the Committee on 
International Relations which will take place this Thursday, February 
29, at 10 a.m.
  I think it is important to put a human face on this barbaric act so 
that the international community and Members of Congress understand 
that Castro's brutal act will forever leave a mark on the loving 
memories of these pilots who gave their lives to help bring freedom and 
democracy to Cuba.
  Today, as I have throughout the weekend, I spoke to the father of 
Mario de la Pena, the mother of Carlos Costa, to the sister of Armando 
Alejandre, Jr. and with the girlfriend of Pablo Morales. And all these 
individuals have been called time and time again in the international 
media as Cuban exiles. I think it is important to note that some of 
these individuals were born right here in the United States. They are 
U.S. citizens and yet even though they were born here, they feel very 
fervently in their hearts that dream for freedom and justice to the 
enslaved people of Cuba.
  Many individuals do not know what Brothers to the Rescue is. There is 
a humanitarian group that came about because they felt great pain when 
they would see their brothers and sisters in the high seas being taken 
over by either the seas or the storms or the sharks in the straits 
between Cuba and Florida. And so these volunteer pilots, none of them 
on any payroll, on their own started flying humanitarian missions 
helping our U.S. Coast Guard in identifying where these rafters were in 
the high seas.
  They would drop supplies to them, such as a bottle of water, perhaps 
a life preserver so that they could continue hanging onto dear life 
while the valiant members of the U.S. Coast Guard would fly out there 
to retrieve them and to be reunited with their loved ones.
  We congratulate the U.S. Coast Guard for their valiant service, so 
many years of service to our community and this humanitarian effort, 
and they would not be able to do as good a job as they had done without 
Brothers to the Rescue.
  This was another routine flight for the brothers, yet Castro has 
incorrectly classified them as interfering in his territory, and he 
sent out his Migs and they shot down these two small planes, Cessna 
planes from the sky, causing the deaths of what we think is the deaths, 
they have not, their bodies have not been recovered in spite of many 
search and rescue missions of the Coast Guard, resulting in the deaths 
of these four brave men, some of them, as I point out, U.S. citizens.
  Were the Brothers to the Rescue planes breaking the law? I think some 
Castro apologists want to keep bringing that up. I think President 
Clinton's statement, Secretary of State Warren Christopher's 
statements, U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright's statements have been 
very clear and to the point. They have said that they were shot down in 
international territory and this is an illegal act. These were 
civilian, small unarmed planes where they clearly identified themselves 
as such. They identified who was in the plane. And they have testified, 
the pilots who were there, the eyewitnesses as well as U.S. officials, 
that this was an illegal act and totally contrary to what is normally 
practiced by free nations.
  Obviously, Castro likes to prove time and time again that he is 
indeed a proud member of that list of the pariah states. Along with 
Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who will be speaking in just a few 
moments, we have known what Brothers to the Rescue was all about. We 
have known about those missions and the community has greatly supported 
them. Jose Basulto, the leader of Brothers to the Rescue, will also be 
with us, Congressman Deutsch, Peter Deutsch spoke today, Congressman 
McCollum, Porter Goss. This is a terrible crime that has united our 
community in saying the truth that we have known about Fidel Castro, 
that he is a merciless tyrant.
  So although we congratulate President Clinton for his sanctions, we 
want him to go further with establishing a naval blockade, establishing 
international sanctions against the tyrant. We hope to move on 
legislation to help bring those changes about.

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