Printed below is a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba released to the press in Havana March 18. The document answers false allegations raised in an article by Thomas Lippman and Guy Gugliotta in the March 16 Washington Post.
The Post article claimed that high-level CIA officials presented Cuban representatives evidence that the Cuban air force shot down two planes flying toward Havana on February 24 over international waters, not inside Cuban air space. As a result, they claimed, Cuban officials retreated from their position that the intruder planes were downed inside Cuban territory.(1) The aircraft were flown by members of the Florida- based counterrevolutionary group "Brothers to the Rescue."
The translation of the statement from Spanish is based on the English-language text provided by the Cuban foreign ministry. Subheadings are by the Militant.
In its March 16 edition, the Washington Post published an article that, despite its stated objective of revealing new information on the February 24 incident involving the violation of Cuba's airspace, is aimed at creating greater confusion and disorientation about the event and about Cuba's action.
Quoting anonymous administration sources, the daily refers to a meeting between Cuban and U.S. experts that allegedly forced Cuba to retreat from its denunciation of the violation of its national jurisdiction. Regardless of the fact that every sentence in that article deserves to be answered and adjusted to the truth, it is necessary, nevertheless, to clarify three particular assertions made in it:
1) There was, in fact, a meeting between Cuban and U.S. experts in New York, in the early morning hours between Friday March 1, and Saturday, March 2, which began exactly at 12:15 a.m. This meeting was the result of an initiative and invitation by the U.S. government for Cuban experts to travel to that country, with the purpose of presenting additional evidence on the events, to which Cuba agreed. The Cuban government is aware that the invitation was made through instructions at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
This was in no way a Cuban initiative, nor was any such request made by the Cuban side. What Cuba did was to adhere to the discretion to which both sides had agreed.
2) The exchange showed the Cuban experts that the U.S. authorities had no solid evidence whatsoever that the events had taken place in international airspace. It confirmed an already indisputable fact: that the downing of the aircraft took place within the 12 miles of Cuba's territorial waters and airspace. The U.S. experts provided no significant evidence of any kind.
3) It is totally false that the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the revolutionary government has backed down from insisting, since the March 1 meeting, that the downing occurred in Cuban waters.
Anyone who had the opportunity to hear or read the statement by the Cuban foreign minister at the [UN] General Assembly(2) on March 6 - five days after the above-mentioned meeting between experts - or the presentation of the head of the Cuban delegation to the council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) the same day, would know that on both occasions Cuba reiterated its unquestionable conviction that the events occurred over Cuban waters and that Cuba acted in legitimate defense of its territory and national security.
Since then, several press statements were picked up by various international media in Havana, New York, and Montreal, in which both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other Cuban officials insisted on this issue.
It was the U.S. administration that, since Monday, February 26, began to retreat and doubt its own assertion that the incident had taken place in international waters. This is reflected in statements by [U.S.] ambassador [to the United Nations] Madeleine Albright and Federico Peņa, head of the U.S. delegation to the ICAO council, who said more than once that it did not matter whether the incident had taken place in Cuban or international waters.
In addition, on March 12, the U.S. president himself, referring to the incident of February 24 during the signing of the Helms-Burton bill, refused to specify whether the event had taken place in international airspace or in Cuban skies. It is the U.S. government that has been unable to maintain a consistent position since the beginning of this episode, because it lacks evidence.
At the same time, because of pressure on the White House by some congressmen, it is already known that the U.S. administration is using abundant and powerful resources, with very precise instructions, to convince a large number of governments that the event occurred at a different location than the actual site.
It would be useful to know what material evidence the U.S. administration presents for its proselytizing work. It would also be interesting to know how it explains to those it approaches that the first diplomatic contacts of that government with the Cuban government, after the incident took place, were a request for permission from Cuban authorities to enter Cuban territorial waters to participate in search and rescue operations.
Cuba has maintained a coherent and consistent position in its statements based on the facts and the only material evidence that has been presented so far. From the beginning we stated, then reiterated, and continue to assert today, that this was a legitimate act of self-defense that occurred in the territorial airspace over which Cuba exercises sovereignty. And this right, as well as the territorial integrity and national security of the country, are sacred. We will never renounce their defense.
1. Here's what the Washington Post article said in the first three paragraphs:
"Senior CIA officials held an unannounced and highly unusual meeting with Cuban intelligence officers in New York last month to show them U.S. intelligence data demonstrating that two small civilian planes were not in Cuban airspace when a Cuban jet fighter shot them down, Clinton administration officials said yesterday.
"Washington arranged the encounter and provided entry visas for six Cuban military intelligence officers to call the bluff of Cubans who were telling the United Nations they had solid evidence that the unarmed Cessnas were downed inside Cuba's 12- mile territorial limit, the senior U.S. officials said.
"The ploy worked, they added. Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina, who had been telling the United Nations he had `all the conversations, all the maps' to prove Cuban airspace had been violated, backed down after the CIA briefing. Reports at the time noted that Robaina retreated from his position but did not say why."
2. See excerpts of speech on pages 4,5,10.