[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 15, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E157-E158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             RECALLING THE TRAGIC DAY OF FEBRUARY 24, 1996

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 15, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on February 24th the 
Cuban people commemorate a glorious and tragic date in the history of 
Cuba. The 1895 war of independence began exactly 111 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, 
Maceo, Banderas, 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 ten years ago. 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, ordered the murder of 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.
  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 freedom, peace, and patriotism will 
be duly memorialized in the democratic Cuba of tomorrow, as they are in 
South Florida today.
  The intervention of destiny saved the third Brothers to the Rescue 
plane which flew on February 24, 1996. 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.
  Mr. Speaker, let us remember the four martyrs from the Brothers to 
the Rescue, let us remember all the political prisoners, and let us 
remember the countless men and women who have given their best years, 
and often their lives, for the freedom of Cuba. My colleagues, this 
February 24th, we must recommit ourselves to the cause of freedom and 
liberty for

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all who languish in the darkness of totalitarianism. My Colleagues, we 
must recommit ourselves to hastening the dawn of a free and democratic 
Cuba.

                          ____________________