AP Was There when Cuban fighter jets shot down two exile planes from Miami

MIAMI (AP) — When Cuban fighter jets shot down planes flown by members of a Cuban exile group from Miami 30 years ago, The Associated Press was there. The AP is republishing that story, by AP writer Nicole Winfield, as it appeared on Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996:

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Cuban fighters shot down two small planes belonging to a Cuban exile group from Miami on Saturday, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard was searching international waters off Havana for four people aboard the Brothers to the Rescue planes. Two Navy ships were also in the area. Officials said there were no debris or signs of survivors.

The pilot of the third plane in the formation returned to Miami and said he saw survivors in the water. His wife said he denied entering Cuban airspace.

President Clinton condemned the shootdown of “two American civilian airplanes” and said he ordered the U.S. military to protect search-and-rescue operations.

He also ordered the U.S. interest section in Havana to demand an immediate explanation.

In Washington, a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity said details were still murky but early indications suggest that the planes may have been heading to Cuba to land, pick up people and fly them out of the country.

The Cessna 337 Skymasters had taken off from Florida after filing flight plans saying their destination was the Bahamas, White House press secretary Mike McCurry said.

Spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn later corrected McCurry, saying the flight plans was to take off from Miami, fly south and return, with no touchdown.

The search was in international seas 8 miles (13 kilometers) north of Cuban waters, Coast Guard Petty Officer David French said. The first Coast Guard jet on the scene reported seeing two oil slicks in the area.

The Coast Guard was using a C-130 cargo plane, a helicopter and two cutters from Key West, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north.

Official news media in Cuba made no immediate mention of the shootdown.

Roberto Gutierrez, who answered the phone at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, Cuba’s diplomatic arm in the United States, said he knew nothing about the report.

Members of the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue were meeting with the returned pilot, Arnaldo Iglesias, and his one-man crew at the group’s headquarters at Opa-Locka Airport, said Mirta Iglesias, his wife.

“He told me they were definitely in international waters,” she said. “He saw Cuban planes. He didn’t tell me anything else.”

Brothers to the Rescue, which in 1995 had five planes and a dlrs 1.2 million annual operating budget, all from donations, is a group of Cuban exiles working to help Cuban rafters attempting to flee their island nation. It estimates that it has saved some 6,000 lives through its sightings and life vest drops.

The group’s planes flew over Cuba in January and in July 1995, dropping anti-government and human rights pamphlets. The Cuban government warned that it would not tolerate such flights.

Every Saturday, Brothers to the Rescue flies to the Bahamas to drop supplies to refugees in camps.

Mrs. Iglesias said Bahamian officials refused give permission for Saturday’s mission, so they flew over the Florida Straits in search of rafters.

She identified the missing four as Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Pena, Pablo Morales and Carlos Costas.

Brothers to the Rescue is a member of Concilio Cubano, a coalition of dissident organizations that postponed a meeting scheduled for Saturday in Havana following the arrest of at least 50 members of human rights groups. Most were freed within hours or days.

Cuban exile groups in Miami have been faxing out daily releases calling attention to the arrests and the State Department has condemned them.

The president of the Puerto Rico chapter of Cocilio Cubano, Sergio Ramos, said Iglesias claimed that he saw survivors in the water.

The head of the powerful Cuban American National Foundation in Miami, Jorge Mas Canosa, condemned the attack: “For two warplanes from the Castro government to shoot down two unarmed civilian planes with American flags on a humanitarian mission should be considered an act of war against the United States.”