25th Silent Vigil for Justice at FIU for Brothers to the Rescue shoot down victims

In memory of our advisor Martin L. Tracey PhD who passed away on February 23, 2021.

 

Members of the Free Cuba Foundation since 1996 have carried out or participated in a silent vigil for justice at Florida International University (FIU) every year for the past 25 years.  Today we once again took part in a silent vigil at the school. The vigil began at 3:21pm, the time the first plane was shot down, and concluding  the vigil at the end of 3:27pm, the time the second plane was destroyed.

Why do we do this? Because this was an act of state terrorism carried out by the Castro dictatorship on the orders of Fidel and Raul Castro through the entire chain of command down to the pilots who executed the illegal order. We are demanding justice and the full truth of what happened,  and with this annual action preserving the memory of the men killed, and the need for justice.

Silent vigil at FIU on February 24, 2021

Mario de la Peña, age 24; Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, both 30, and Armando Alejandre Jr., 45 were all blown out of international airspace on February 24, 1996. They were members of the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue.

They were killed while engaged in a search and rescue for Cuban rafters in the Florida Straits. They were hunted down and intercepted by a Cuban MiG-29UB Fulcrum and a MiG-23ML Fishbed over the Florida Straits.

These jets — a two-man MiG-29 UB and a MiG-23 ML —were armed with heat-seeking air-to-air missiles and machine guns.  

The MiG-29UB, piloted by Lorenzo Alberto Peréz Peréz, shot down N2456S and N5485S, carrying Mario, Carlos, Pablo, and Armando while N2506 escaped.  They were killed on Fidel and Raul Castro's orders, and with the assistance of Cuban spies in Miami providing flight times and other pertinent information to Havana.

Aboard N2506 were Sylvia Iriondo, Andrés Iriondo,  Jose Basulto, and Arnaldo Iglesias. They lived to set the record straight on what happened.

The belief is that the three planes set out a little later than expected based on the data provided by the spies, and the MiGs hunting for them ran low on fuel after destroying the two civilian planes with air-to-air missiles. The time it took to get assets back in the air to hunt for the third plane gave them crucial time to escape. 

Family members plant the tree on March 6, 1997

 

After the vigil at the main fountain we walked over to the law school where a tree was planted in their honor on March 6, 1997.

The same tree on February 24, 2021

 

Normally we would encourage students and members of the community to join us in this gathering around the main fountain at FIU, with family members and friends of Mario, Carlos, Pablo, and Armando, but due to COVID-19 we recommended people of good will carry out a virtual vigil. 

This would involve taking a picture, describing what happened, and sharing a link to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on the shoot down.

"To forget the victims means to kill them a second time. So I couldn't prevent the first death. I surely must be capable of saving them from a second death." - Elie Wiesel#TruthJusticeMemory #ArmandoCarlosMarioPabloViven

REPORT Nº 86/99 CASE 11.589https://t.co/wQGB25ynuN pic.twitter.com/6UQJDAZRwT

— Center for Free Cuba (@cubacenter) February 25, 2021

Please join us in this action and let others know about this crime.