MIAMI, Feb 12 (Reuter) - Cuban exile groups on Wednesday said they would proclaim Feb. 24 as a "Day of Sorrow and Hope,"
marking the first anniversary of the shooting down of two planes by Cuban jets over the Florida Straits.
The attack on the planes of the Brothers to the Rescue organization, which were searching for rafters fleeing communist-ruled Cuba, shocked Miami's Cuban community and enflamed tensions between Washington and Havana.
On the anniversary, a seven-minute silence will be observed from 3:21 to 3:28 p.m. -- the time the two planes were attacked and downed. All four people on board were killed.
Commemoration organizers urged Cuban Americans and other Florida residents to observe the silence and to wear black ribbons or clothing. Exile planes will also fly over the site of the shooting in international waters to drop wreaths.
"Armando (Alejandre), Carlos (Costa), Mario (De La Pena) and Pablo (Morales) symbolized the highest ideals of thousands of other Cuban martyrs," one organizer, Lourdes Chao-Navarrete, told reporters alongside a memorial at the Brothers to the Rescue hangar at Opa-Locka Airport.
"They leave behind a ray of light for all who are in search of freedom."
The incident forced President Bill Clinton to tighten the U.S. embargo on Cuba, a move that has annoyed Canada and European and Latin American countries which have normal trade relations with Havana.
Although he had been widely expected to oppose the legislation, Clinton signed the controversial Helms-Burton Act after the shootdown. It would allow naturalized Americas whose assets were seized in Cuba after the 1959 revolution to sue foreign companies who later profited from those assets.
16:44 02-12-97