[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 24, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN COMMEMORATION OF FEBRUARY 24

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 24, 1999

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, on February 24th the people of Cuba 
commemorate a glorious and tragic date in the history of their country. 
The 1895 war of independence began exactly 104 years ago; the Cry of 
Baire constitutes one of the most heroic acts of the Cuban people. 
Intimately connected with this date is the heroism of Marti, Gomez and 
Maceo and the thousands of freedom fighters known as mambises who shall 
forever ennoble the Cuban nationality.
  Tragically, February 24th will also be forever connected with the 
murders which took place on that date in 1996. The Cuban tyrant, 
ultimately insulted by the courage demonstrated by the Brothers to the 
Rescue when they dropped pamphlets and other pieces of paper over 
Havana with pro-democracy slogans and copies of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights a few months back, ordered the murder of 
all the men and women who were going to fly on February 24th in 
civilian planes carrying out humanitarian missions for Brothers to the 
Rescue.
  The Cuban tyrant prepared his murders well. An agent of his by the 
name of Roque, who had occasionally flown for the Brothers to the 
Rescue organization, was ordered to return the day before to Cuba. 
Roque was going to publicly declare after the murders of February 24th 
that he was a survivor from the mission and that the humanitarian 
group's planes were taking arms to ``Concilio Cubano'', a coalition of 
dissident organizations inside Cuba which had announced its intention 
to host a public meeting in Havana on February 24th and whose 
membership was brutally repressed by the dictatorship. Roque would also 
announce that the planes had been shot down over Cuban waters.
  Additionally, the Clinton Administration ordered that on February 
24th, the U.S. Air Force not protect the planes of Brothers to the 
Rescue.
  We all know that Pablo Morales, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la 
Pena and Carlos Costa were brutally murdered on February 24, 1996. I am 
sure that those four martyrs of peace and patriotism will be duly 
memorialized in the democratic Cuba of tomorrow, as they are in South 
Florida today.
  The intervention of the imponderable, of destiny, saved the third 
Brothers to the Rescue plane which flew on February 24, 1996, the plane 
flown by Jose Basulto. That intervention of the imponderable made it 
possible for the world and for history to know that the planes were 
shot down over international waters, while engaged in a peaceful and 
humanitarian mission. Roque had to remain quiet and the Clinton 
Administration as well as the Castro dictatorship had to accept the 
Helms-Burton Law (with the codification of the embargo, codification 
being something which neither the Clinton Administration nor Castro 
ever expected was going to be part of the Helms-Burton Law).
  After the murders, there are two obvious questions which need to be 
answered.
  First, why was the order given on February 24, 1996 to the U.S. Air 
Force that it not protect the planes of the Brothers to the Rescue? In 
effect, the White House had to have issued a counter order for that 
day, since a standing order exists requiring the U.S. Air Force to 
intercept every plane that is detected coming toward the United States 
from Cuba.
  And secondly, why has Castro not been prosecuted for his cold blooded 
murders of February 24, 1996, even after he admitted to the 
international press that he himself ordered the murders?

                          ____________________