Weather Curtails Memorial Staged By Cuban Exiles Flotilla Forced To Turn Back, But 60,000 Attend Miami Service

Choppy seas and dangerous thunderstorms Saturday halted a 35-boat flotilla of Cuban exiles that set off to stage a memorial for four comrades killed by Cuban jet fighters a week ago.

Planes from Brothers to the Rescue, the exiles’ search-and-rescue group, crossed the Florida Straits and dropped a floral wreath and red, white and blue carnations over the spot where the two unarmed civilian planes were downed by Cuban fighters.

Two of the planes later flew over the Orange Bowl in Miami, where more than 60,000 Cuban-Americans gathered for a memorial service for the slain exiles. Many cheered and wept as the planes passed.

The crowd roared its approval when Madeleine Albright, United States ambassador to the United Nations, stood to speak.

“We will tighten sanctions against the government of Cuba, but without harming the people we want to protect,” she said. “We will employ every diplomatic strategy we can devise to bring about a transition to democracy. We will deprive Castro the satisfaction of driving us to violence.”

Albright met with leaders of Cuban exile groups Saturday afternoon, said Jorge Mas Canosa, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation.

“They came to thank her and to express their satisfaction with the policy of the Clinton administration,” Mas Canosa said.

Earlier in the day, the exiles’ boats, escorted by 11 U.S. Coast Guard cutters, lurched into waves whipped up to 9 feet by high winds. That slowed the flotilla and prevented it from reaching the exact spot 21 miles northwest of Havana.

“The conditions are terrible,” said Pablo Valladares, who returned to a Key West marina. “It was smart to come back.”

The flotilla set sail early Saturday, but 21 boats had turned back by early afternoon and many exiles were seen leaning over the sides vomiting from seasickness.

About halfway into the 90-mile journey, the last 14 boats dropped flowers and wreaths into the churning sea and sang the Cuban national anthem. They shouted “Viva Cuba libre!” - “Long live a free Cuba” - and then headed back to Key West.

Five of the smallest boats in the flotilla returned to Key West after laying a wreath at a spot 10 miles south of the coast where a boat sank and a man died in a similar exile protest Sept. 2.

“We cannot let (Cuban President Fidel) Castro push us back by raising the state of fear on the island,” said Jose Basulto, head of the exile group that combs the Straits looking for rafter refugees.

“Castro’s time is up,” said flotilla participant Dario Vallejo, 53. “He has to go. Those men on the planes aren’t his only victims. He has the blood of thousands of people on his hands.”

Scores of Cuban exiles whose boats were too small or frail to withstand the rough seas were cautioned by police and the Coast Guard not to join the flotilla when it set off at 7 a.m.

Cuba contends it shot down the two planes Feb. 24 because they had violated its territorial airspace. The island’s communist-ruled government has promised similar retaliation if provoked again, although no trouble was reported Saturday.

Castro, meanwhile, accepted responsibility for last weekend’s shootdown.

“(Brothers) harassed our Air Force, violated our air space, dropped leaflets on our capital and engaged in other constant acts of provocation,” Castro told Time magazine in an interview released Saturday. “We reported each and every violation to the United States in a diplomatic protest. … We had been patient, but there are limits.”

The Brothers volunteers killed in the shootdown were Armando Alejandre, Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Pena, and Pablo Morales.

A U.S. military escort in the air and on the water had orders to do whatever it took to keep the flotilla from turning into another international incident.

President Clinton said, “Cuba’s demonstrated willingness to use reckless force, including deadly force” led him to declare a national emergency to provide authority for the U.S. Coast Guard to take whatever steps necessary to prevent American vessels from entering Cuban waters.

The 11 cutters escorting the flotilla were mounted with machine guns. The Coast Guard also provided six helicopters and eight airplanes to lead the aircraft and protect the boats.