Brothers to the Rescue

Brothers to the Rescue
Hermanos al Rescate
PurposeAid balseros and dissidents in Cuba
Location
  • Miami, United States
Methods
  • Rescue rafters spotted in the Florida straits by aircraft
  • Airdropping dissident leaflets over Cuba
Websitehermanos.org

Brothers to the Rescue (Spanish: Hermanos al Rescate) is a Miami-based activist nonprofit organization headed by José Basulto. Formed by Cuban exiles, the group is widely known for its opposition to the Cuban government and its former leader Fidel Castro. The group describes itself as a humanitarian organization aiming to assist and rescue raft refugees emigrating from Cuba and to "support the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active non-violence".[1] Brothers to the Rescue, Inc., was founded in May 1991 "after several pilots were touched by the death of" fifteen-year-old Gregorio Perez Ricardo,[2] who "fleeing Castro's Cuba on a raft, perished of severe dehydration in the hands of U.S. Coast Guard officers who were attempting to save his life."[3]

The Cuban government accuses them of involvement in terrorist acts,[4][5] and infiltrated the group (see Juan Pablo Roque and the Wasp Network).

In 1996, two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by the Cuban Air Force in international airspace. The incident was condemned internationally, including by the UN Security Council while the Cuban government defended the decision claiming the planes were there to destabilize the Cuban government. The Castro-approved mission against Brothers to the Rescue was codenamed "Operation Scorpion".

  1. ^ "Background and information". Brothers to the Rescue. Archived from the original on December 25, 2005.
  2. ^ "Murder in the Florida Straits". paxety.com.
  3. ^ "Background And Information on Brothers to the Rescue, Inc". Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
  4. ^ "Annex to the letter dated 29 October 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General. Summary of principal terrorist actions against Cuba (1990-2000)" (PDF). November 6, 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 25, 2003.
  5. ^ "The Cuban Downing of the Planes. The News We Haven't Been Hearing ..." Cuba Solidarity. Archived from the original on September 26, 2006. Retrieved February 5, 2006.