CUBA: Uneventful First Anniversary of ‘Small Airplane Crisis’

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Feb 24 1997 (IPS) - The first anniversary of the shooting down of two civilian aircraft, which gave rise to what is known here as “the small airplane crisis,” was uneventful in Cuba, in spite of reports that anti-Castro activists were planning to approach Cuban waters and airspace.

The streets of Havana were calm following a carnival weekend, and radio stations focused on the anniversary of the 1895 renewal of the fight for independence against Spain.

The media avoided reporting the possibility that a fleet of 18 airplanes and several boats sent by the U.S.-based Cuban exile organisation “Democratic Movement” could reach Cuban waters Tuesday.

The fleet aims to drop flowers into the sea at the site where, according to the U.S. government, the two small airplanes were shot down.

On Feb. 24, 1996, the Cuban air forces knocked down two planes flown by the Miami-based anti-Castro organisation “Brothers to the Rescue”.

The incident, in which four pilots were killed, led to President Bill Clinton’s signing of the Helms-Burton act, which stiffens the embargo of Cuba and provides for sanctions against companies from third countries that “traffic” in property confiscated from U.S. owners after the 1959 revolution.

Marianela Ferreol, the spokeswoman for Cuba’s foreign ministry, reiterated that her government would take any necessary measures to ward off violations of its air or ocean space.

“We have no intentions of entering Cuba. The shoot-downs took place in international waters,” Argentine pilot Guillermo Lares, a member of “Brothers to the Rescue”, said in Miami. “We will cross the 24th parallel, which is 80 kms from Cuba, but we won’t go very far.”

Havana claims that the airplanes were shot down as they flew over Cuban air space in response to a call by exile groups to commit “civil disobedience” against the government of Fidel Castro.

According to official sources here, in the 10 months leading up to the incident, Cuba “tolerated” more than 20 violations of its airspace by aircraft coming from the United States. The last verbal warning was issued on Jan. 15, when a foreign embassy communique cautioned that the government was prepared to “shoot down” or “sink” any air or watercraft violating its territory.

The communique stated that aircraft piloted by Cubans living in Miami violated Cuban air space on Jan. 9 and 13, flying over Havana and tossing out anti-Castro leaflets.

“The lamentable Feb. 24 incident could have been prevented,” wrote Deputy Lazaro Barredo in an article published by the weekly ‘Trabajadores’, the publication of Cuba’s central trade union. “Cuba had only three options” when the incident took place, the legislator argued: “appeal to the United States to put an end to such actions, act, or permit impunity to win out.”

“The last option was completely ruled out,” he added.

After the Feb. 24 incident, anti-Castro groups in Miami once again flew their planes on Mar. 24 and Jul. 13, but without violating Cuban airspace.

Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban parliament, said that last Mar. 24 would go down in history as the first time the United States attempted to avoid a violation of Cuba’s sovereignty. A State Department communique released on Mar. 20 had warned the new fleet that was forming that anyone who entered Cuban territory by sea or by air would be in serious danger.

It also urged Cuba to fulfill “its obligations, in accordance with the principles of international civil aviation and maritime rights, to exercise the greatest prudence and caution.”

But officials here say it is now up to the U.S. government to avoid any provocative action against Cuba by U.S.-based water or aircraft.

As it did last year, the Cuban government has made a boat available to transport national and foreign reporters to a site close to the supposed destination of the anti-Castro fleet.