Cuban exile group to go ahead with memorial for pilots

Cuba critical, but says it won't interfere

March 1, 1996
Web posted at: 11:25 a.m. EST

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue plans to go ahead Saturday with its planned memorial to four pilots who died when Cuban MiGs shot down their planes last week.

The U.S. government has warned the group that it will seize any ship that violates Cuban air space or territorial waters. Jose Basulto, founder of Brothers to the Rescue, said Friday on "CBS This Morning" that the group is taking the U.S. warning seriously, but that it could not be responsible for the actions of individual participants.

"Everybody that acts on their own will be on their own," Basulto said.

Basulto added that he welcomes the U.S. Coast Guard escort ordered by President Clinton Thursday.

"(Castro) may try to provoke the United States," he said. "We realize it's dangerous to be there."

On Friday. U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry said other U.S. military ships and planes are ready to assist in "escorting and monitoring" the flotilla if the Coast Guard requests help.

In Havana, the Cuban Foreign Ministry called the planned flotilla an act of "political provocation."

"The U.S. government is acting irresponsibly," he said. "It has the means to stop this flotilla if it wanted to."

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said the Cuban government would not interfere with the service or any other planned events so long as Cuban air and sea space -- beginning 12 miles from Cuban shores -- are not violated.

If planes or boats do cross into Cuban territory, said Cossio, the Cuban military will "take appropriate measures to defend our coastline."

Cuba said it downed the two Brothers to the Rescue planes last weekend after warning the aircraft not to violate Cuban air space. Basulto, who piloted a third plane that returned safely to Miami, contends that the three planes were looking for refugees in international waters.

"On Saturday, we plan to conduct a flight and a religious ceremony to the site where the airplanes were downed by the Castro air force," Basulto said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "We certainly are there to exert our right to be in international waters as much as you are to walk the streets at night."

The Coast Guard will send a dozen cutters, two helicopters and a C-130 aircraft to watch over the memorial service.

"One of the planes went down 18-miles offshore and the other went down 24-miles offshore," said Coast Guard Admiral Roger Rufe. "We picked a spot exactly in between to ensure a dignified recognition of both downings, well into international waters, which is where the incident occurred."

Rufe said he had received assurances from Cuban exile groups that they would not "deviate from their flotilla."

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Reuters contributed to this report.