Brothers to the Rescue

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Brothers to the Rescue
Hermanos al Rescate
PurposeAid balseros and dissidents in Cuba
Location
  • Miami, United States
Methods
  • Rescue rafters spotted in the Florida straits by aircraft
  • Airdropping dissident leaflets over Cuba
Websitehermanos.org

Brothers to the Rescue (

opposition to the Cuban government and its former leader Fidel Castro. The group describes itself as a humanitarian organization aiming to assist and rescue raft refugees emigrating from Cuba and to "support the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active non-violence".[1] Brothers to the Rescue, Inc., was founded in May 1991 "after several pilots were touched by the death of" fifteen-year-old Gregorio Perez Ricardo,[2] who "fleeing Castro's Cuba on a raft, perished of severe dehydration in the hands of U.S. Coast Guard officers who were attempting to save his life."[3]

The Cuban government accuses them of involvement in

Wasp Network
).

In 1996, two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by the

Cuban Air Force
in international airspace. The incident was condemned internationally, including by the UN Security Council while the Cuban government defended the decision claiming the planes were there to destabilize the Cuban government. The Castro-approved mission against Brothers to the Rescue was codenamed "Operation Scorpion".

History

Humanitarian missions

Further information: 1994 Cuban rafter crisis
Sample political leaflet dropped by Brothers to the Rescue on Cuba in 1996

In its early years, the group actively rescued rafters from Cuba and claims to have saved thousands of Cubans who were emigrating from the country.[1][6] Eventually, the group's focus shifted after changes in US immigration policy meant that rafters would be sent back to Cuba.

The group's founder has stated that after August 1995, it stopped seeing rafters in the water. Heavily dependent on funding for rafting activities, the group's funding rapidly dropped to $320,455 in 1995, down from $1.5 million the year before. As a result, the group focused more on civil disobedience against the Cuban government.[7] At least once, the group's founder dropped leaflets on Cuba.[6][8]

Roque and Wasp Network

Further information: Cuban Five

One of the group's pilots, Cuban Juan Pablo Roque, a former major in the Cuban air force, unexpectedly left on February 23, 1996, the day before the two planes were shot down, and turned up in Havana,[9] where he condemned the group. Roque had left Cuba four years earlier and was recruited by the Brothers shortly afterward, flying several missions.

Despite being dismissed as a Cuban agent by US officials, Roque denied working for the Cuban government and claimed to have returned home after being disillusioned with the Brothers. He claimed that they had plans to carry out attacks on military bases in Cuba and to disrupt its defense communications.

Roque appeared on Cuban television on February 26, 1996, where he denounced the Brothers as an illegal and anti-Cuban organization the fundamental purpose of which is to provoke incidents that aggravated relations between Cuba and United States. In an interview with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), he stated that the group had planned to introduce anti-personnel weapons into Cuba and blow up high tension pylons to interrupt the energy supply.[10]

While in Miami, Roque had contacts with and was paid by the

Wasp Network, infiltrated the Brothers.[6]

Rene Gonzalez, another Wasp Network spy, also infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and regularly sabotaged aircraft and reported on its activities until his subsequent arrest.

1996 shootdown incident

Main article: 1996 shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue aircraft

On February 24, 1996, two of the Brothers to the Rescue

Carlos Costa
, Armando Alejandre, Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel after the shootdown, Roque has lived in a government-provided Havana home with security since the incident. In an interview with

The Miami Herald in 2012, he expressed remorse for the shootdown. "If I could travel in a time machine", he said, "I'd get those boys off the planes that were shot down." In 1999, he was indicted on federal charges of defrauding the FBI and failing to register as a foreign agent. However, Cuba has refused to extradite him. To this day, the Cuban exile community in South Florida considers Roque a traitor.[12]

See also
  • Cuba-United States relations

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Background and information". Brothers to the Rescue. Archived from the original on December 25, 2005.
  2. ^ "Murder in the Florida Straits". paxety.com.
  3. ^ "Background And Information on Brothers to the Rescue, Inc". Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
  4. ^ "Annex to the letter dated 29 October 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General. Summary of principal terrorist actions against Cuba (1990-2000)" (PDF). November 6, 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 25, 2003.
  5. ^ a b "The Cuban Downing of the Planes. The News We Haven't Been Hearing ..." Cuba Solidarity. Archived from the original on September 26, 2006. Retrieved February 5, 2006.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8130-3490-4
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-8130-3490-4
    .
  8. Latin American Studies
    .
  9. ^ Padgett, Tim (June 24, 2001). "The spy who raped me". Time. United States. Archived from the original on November 25, 2011. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  10. ^ "Report on the shooting down of two U.S.-registered private civil aircraft by Cuban military aircraft on 24 February 1996", C-WP/10441, June 20, 1996, United Nations Security Council document, S/1996/509, July 1, 1996.
  11. ISSN 1060-4189. Archived from the original
    on September 15, 2003. Retrieved April 30, 2006.
  12. The Miami Herald
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brothers_to_the_Rescue&oldid=1210075424"