BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
NEW YORK - On May 16 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revoked the pilot's license of José Basulto, head of Brothers to the Rescue.

Members of the group, which is led by Cuban-American counterrevolutionaries, piloted three Cessna aircraft that violated Cuba's airspace February 24. Two of the three planes were shot down by the Cuban air force after refusing to heed unambiguous warnings by Cuban air traffic controllers and air force jets.

According to the Cuban government's account, the invasion of Cuban airspace on the afternoon of February 24, was the second hostile incursion that day by the same kind of aircraft, and the 10th such violation of Cuban territory over the past 20 months, involving some 30 planes. Throughout this period, Washington has refused to take any action to stop these escalating provocations organized from U.S. soil.

Basulto, who was piloting the third plane that afternoon, flew away from Cuban airspace and returned to Florida.

The FAA said in a statement the ruling against Basulto was effective immediately. "The order is based upon evidence of unauthorized operation into Cuban airspace by Basulto on July 13, 1995, and Feb. 24, 1996," it said. "The order also indicates that Basulto ignored numerous warnings concerning his actions from the FAA and the State Department."

Basulto said he will pursue legal action to get his license back.

Immediately following the downing of the two Cessnas, Basulto insisted that the claim that even one of the aircraft had entered Cuban airspace "is a lie." Later that day, however, he told CNN, "There's always a possibility, although remote, that something like this might have taken place."

The U.S. government has maintained that the Cuban air force shot down the two Brothers to the Rescue planes outside Cuban airspace, even though it has acknowledged that Basulto briefly violated Cuban territory. Washington has used this claim to justify passage of the so-called Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act escalating the U.S. economic war on Cuba as well as new travel restrictions to the island, including a ban on direct flights from Miami to Havana.

Brothers to the Rescue has publicly acknowledged that on three occasions over the past six months - in July 1995, and twice in January of this year - it has organized flights directly over Havana, scattering leaflets from the air.

"One day they drop leaflets, another day maybe they try to introduce weapons into our country," said Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly, during a televised interview February 26. In fact, murderous assaults organized by U.S.-based "civilians," using "civilian" planes, boats, and small weapons, have taken the lives of many Cubans ever since workers and farmers there overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Basulto seeks to portray Brothers to the Rescue as a "humanitarian" organization. But in 1961 he trained with the Central Intelligence Agency and participated in the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs that was quickly crushed by Cuba's revolutionary armed forces.

Escaping death or capture, he made his way to the Guantánamo naval base - Cuban territory forcibly occupied by the U.S. government. Basultós own Cessna has a large "2506" painted in gold on its side, vaunting his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506.

In 1962, Basulto commanded a high-speed boat mounted with a small cannon from Miami into the Havana harbor and fired on a Cuban hotel. And in the 1980s, Basulto aided the U.S.-organized contras seeking to overthrow the revolutionary government in Nicaragua.

Referring to the FAA decision to revoke Basultós license, Cuban president Fidel Castro told Prensa Latina on May 18, "It was correct. It should have been done earlier; this could have avoided the incident."

"We must carefully consider," Castro added, "how much of this is good intentions, how much reflects seriousness, and how much of this is a maneuver."

Speaking to activists who were attending a meeting of the National Network on Cuba here on May 19, Bruno Rodríguez, ambassador of the Cuban mission to the United Nations, made the same point.

He also pointed to the investigation of the February 24 incident by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The Cuban government has offered material evidence that the two planes were shot down over Cuban waters, including personal items from the four pilots and spotters on the planes and debris from the wreckage. But Washington has been working hard to hamper the investigation, Rodríguez said. The ICAO is supposed to issue its findings before the end of June.

"We hope that common sense will prevail in the ICAO and the UN Security Council," he stated. He pointed out, however, that U.S. politicians like Republican presidential front-runner Robert Dole have pushed for criminal charges against Cuban officials who were involved in the decision to down the intruder planes.

Rodríguez noted that the date when the ICAO issues its findings, and July 15, the deadline for president William Clinton to decide whether to postpone implementation of certain provisions of the new embargo-tightening legislation, could become flashpoints in relations between the two countries. "This is one of the worst moments in U.S.-Cuba relations," he said.  
 
 
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