May 21 from Havana
The International Committee for Peace, Justice, and Dignity rejects and condemns the escalation of aggression by the U.S. government against Cuba.
On May 20, 131 years after José Martí fell in battle, the Miami mafia, led by anti-Cuban congressmen, filed charges against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz for an act of self-defense that occurred on February 24, 1996.
On that day, three light aircraft belonging to the terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue led by the criminal José Basulto, violated Cuban airspace for the twenty-sixth time.
For two years, from 1994 to 1996, in the midst of the Special Period, Brothers to the Rescue carried out multiple aerial incursions. Time and again, on twenty-five occasions, they flew over the cities of Havana and Matanzas. Each flight was a provocation, and each provocation endangered Cuba’s national security, its inhabitants, and the national and international air corridor. HAR planes dropped counterrevolutionary leaflets, pamphlets inciting sedition, or pesticides to destroy crops. They flew at low altitudes to evade radar, but they could be seen from the Malecón.
Each illegal incursion was reported by the Cuban government to the U.S. government and international aviation agencies. Fidel made it clear that no further attacks on Cuba’s air, maritime, and land space would be tolerated.
On February 24, 1996, the Cuban Air Force warned the terrorists to turn back and not enter Cuban airspace.
Their leader Basulto ordered the two planes to proceed, but he cowardly turned around and returned to Miami. The two planes were shot down and crashed into Cuban territorial waters.
For 30 years, the United States has concealed the satellite images proving that the planes violated Cuban airspace and crashed into Cuban territorial waters.
A single witness, the owner of a luxury yacht closely linked to the shadowy Cuban-American National Foundation in Miami, claimed that the shoot down occurred in international waters.
Those of us who participated in the international campaign for the freedom of the Five Cuban Patriots learned the details while analyzing the lack of evidence in the prosecution’s case.
The sole party responsible for that tragic act of self-defense was the U.S. government, which allowed and continues to allow impunity for terrorist groups such as Brothers to the Rescue, which, behind the façade of its name, was engaged in drug trafficking, terrorist attacks, smuggling, and the illegal trafficking of migrants.
The United States lies brazenly and manipulates the facts; it lacks any legal basis and staged this shameful spectacle to continue escalating pressure to inhuman limits that would provoke an internal explosion or justify military aggression.
Raúl—the man of Moncada, the man of Granma, the young man of the Sierra Maestra, and the radiant victory of January 1—is the strength of the uniformed forces and the common people. Raúl shone as a guerrilla commander at the head of the Second Eastern Front. As a statesman, he secured the Peace Accords in Colombia and the resumption of relations with the United States. He has earned the respect of the entire world.
His humanism, his ethics, his example of a militant life, his loyalty to Fidel, to Martí’s ideology, and to his people have ensured that, at 95 years old, he has entered the very soul of Cuba’s history. Whoever dares to try to hijack history will perish within it.
We endorse the Declaration of the Cuban Revolutionary Government; we call on international solidarity to mobilize worldwide to prevent war and U.S. military aggression against Cuba.
Cuba does not threaten, offend, or invade anyone; Cuba wants to be left to live in peace, without a blockade or sanctions, but if attacked, it will defend itself. With Cuba and alongside it, international solidarity will stand in the front line.
In the face of imperial aggression on the Centennial of Fidel, we say louder than ever:
No to imperialism! No to fascism!
Long live the Revolution!
Long live Fidel and Raúl!
Source: International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity