Today, August 24, 1996, six months after the murder in international airspace of Armando, Carlos, Mario and Pablo by Castro's MiGs, Brothers to the Rescue will resume its humanitarian patrols in international waters of the Florida Straits. Six months of waiting and watching a worsening refugee situation in the Florida Straits. Questioning if others will respond to the need. Six months of conflict with our loved ones, pain for our fallen Brothers and legal battles to defend our honor from those who at times choose to side with our enemies. Today we return because the underlying causes of the long years of exodus are still in effect, and the loss of life continues. We return because, by not doing so, we would have yielded to state terrorism from Cuba and political harassment from the U.S. We return because Mario, Pablo, Carlos and Armando would have returned. We return because the people of Cuba, our brothers, must learn to believe in themselves as well as to act for themselves. We return to tell you that we have never been, and never will be, an instrument to provoke an armed intervention in Cuba by the U.S. We return to accuse Castro of a blind military adventure in the shoot-down of our planes, and to make him responsible for the additional suffering to the Cuban people that this action will bring about. We return to tell our people that only thru their courage to confront their oppressor, and their dignity as their only weapon, this struggle can be won! We return to bring love where only hate exists, and to bring hope to a nation that subsist under darkness. We return to assert our right to return, as well as to inspire our brothers within the Island, to take action in behalf of their own rights. We return to contain a possible human avalanche triggered by Castro to blackmail a U.S. President that sometimes cannot tell apart his friends from the enemies of this country. We return to honor Leonel Morejon Almagro, Lazaro Gonzalez, Gustavo and Sebastian Arcos, Pay , and others that had the courage to give us Concilio Cubano and to face the consequences of their actions. It is them we honor today; For they are the future for Democracy in Cuba. We thank you for being with us, and now we prepare to depart with a smile and a prayer,for this is our struggle.
Copyright © 1996 Brothers to the Rescue, Inc.