By MABELL DIEPPA
Herald Staff Writer
The president of Brothers to the Rescue, Jose Basulto, has accused the U.S. government of reaching an understanding with President Fidel Castro of Cuba that enabled Cuban warplanes to shoot down two of the group's spotter planes over the Straits of Florida.
The assertion was made Friday, after Basulto met in Arlington, Va., with three officials of the Inspector General's Office of the Defense Department. They are investigating the alleged incursion of
Cuban MiG fighters into U.S. airspace Feb. 24.
Basulto's charge represents an escalation of his allegations that the U.S. government was aware of a possible Cuban attack on Brothers planes but did not warn the group's pilots. Until Friday, Basulto had not accused Washington of conspiring with Havana.
Four members of the Miami-based volunteer group died in the shoot-down. Basulto, who was piloting a third aircraft, managed to escape unhurt.
``We believe that there was an implicit agreement -- at what level, we don't know -- between the two governments, which placed the Straits of Florida at Fidel Castro's disposal so he could kill four members of Brothers to the Rescue,'' Basulto told The Herald. ``This is something the U.S. government needs to clarify.''
The inquiry was ordered in September by the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs. The panel focused the investigation on the possible incursion of two Cuban MiGs into a region about 45 miles from Key West, a breach of security that elicited no reaction from the U.S. Air Force.
According to Basulto, the MiGs chased his Cessna as far north as 32 miles from Key West. He says U.S. authorities have ample proof of that.
Last year, the authorities were forced to give Basulto the transcripts of recordings made by U.S. listening posts, describing the conversation between a Cuban air controller and the pilots of the two MiGs.
One of the pilots described his quarry to the controller: a Cessna 337 like the one Basulto flew. After a chase lasting several minutes, the controller ordered the pilots back to base because they had strayed too far from Cuba.
Despite this recording, the officials from the Inspector General's Office insisted Friday that the MiG incursions never took place.
As evidence, attorney Kay Cannon and investigators William Cogley and Miles Kara gave Basulto and his attorney, Sofia Powell-Cossio, copies of the radar tracings made Feb. 24 by U.S. tracking stations.
According to the officials, the MiGs did not cross the 24th parallel, which separates the skies controlled by the United States and Cuba. That, they said, explains why the U.S. Air Force did not scramble any interceptor planes.
``In that case, [the Defense Department] must account for the plane the MiG pilot describes in the transcript,'' Basulto said. ``As long as that fundamental question is not answered, our position will remain the same.''
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