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Cuba said the 1996 downing of planes operated by the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue was a measure to protect its sovereignty, after U.S. officials charged former Cuban leader Raul Castro and others over the incident.
Havana said the attack was a response to repeated airspace violations, adding that the U.S. administration knew of the flights but failed to stop them, according to Prensa Latina.
The statement came after U.S. Acting Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the U.S. Justice Department had announced an indictment accusing Castro and other officials of crimes linked to the 1996 downing of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft.
The Cuban government said that before the incident, similar violations had occurred many times and that Havana had repeatedly warned Washington it would no longer tolerate such actions.
In its statement, Cuba said it had previously reported that three aircraft of the same type had entered Cuban airspace and territorial waters between 10:15 a.m. and 11:27 a.m. local time.
“At that time, an Air Force aircraft was sent to the area and the pirate aircraft were forced to withdraw,” the statement said.
Havana said airspace violations by anti-Cuba groups based in the U.S. had been reported to Washington and that U.S. authorities were warned in time about the seriousness of the situation and its possible consequences.
The Cuban government said the country’s civil aviation officials had made two official appeals to U.S. Federal Aviation Administration officials to prevent the incident.
Cuba said it decided to stop flights that violated its sovereignty and endangered citizens’ lives after “all warning mechanisms” had been exhausted.
“After all warning mechanisms were exhausted and in the face of repeated aggressive statements and actions by Cuban-origin terrorist organizations operating in the U.S., the Cuban government decided to end flights that violated the country’s sovereignty and endangered the lives of citizens,” the statement said.
Cuba also expressed regret over the deaths in the incident.
“The downing of the aircraft in 1996 was not an arbitrary attack. It was a security measure taken to protect Cuba’s sovereignty. The U.S. did not prevent the provocations and even indirectly supported them,” the Cuban government said.
Havana said that in the 20 months before the aircraft were downed, 25 aircraft from the U.S. had violated Cuban airspace.
The Cuban government claimed Washington remained indifferent to those violations.
Blanche spoke at a news conference in Miami, Florida, during events marking Cuban Independence Day.
“Today, we are announcing an indictment charging Raul Castro and several others with conspiring to kill four U.S. citizens,” Blanche said.
Blanche said Castro, 94, the brother of Fidel Castro, and other unnamed individuals were accused over Cuba’s 1996 downing of aircraft belonging to the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue, as well as other crimes.
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