Brothers to the Rescue
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]
Purpose
Aid balseros and dissidents in Cuba
- Miami, United States
- Rescue rafters spotted in the Florida straits by aircraft
- Airdropping dissident leaflets over Cuba
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".