A photograph of a Cuban military plane shows two machetes painted on the fuselage as "trophies" from the downing of the planes belonging to Hermanos al Rescate on February 24, 1996. This was revealed by Luis Domínguez, a researcher of the Cuban Repressors project, in an interview with Tania Costa, in CiberCuba, where he explains the significance of that image and the pilots featured in it.
"Those machetes were placed on that plane as victories won on the battlefield by killing four defenseless unarmed people in international waters," Domínguez states. "For the Cuban who beats his chest about this, he should feel ashamed for the rest of his life because it is not something to be proud of."
According to the researcher, initially the Cuban pilots painted two stars on the plane to mark their supposed victories, but later replaced them with machetes.
Domínguez leaves no doubt about what those symbols represent: “Those two machetes symbolize the two planes from Brothers to the Rescue that they attacked and destroyed.”
The researcher has identified several pilots in photographs by their position number.
"The number six that appears there, Tania, is the killer of the planes from Brothers to the Rescue. His name is Lorenzo Alberto Pérez Pérez, and I have spoken with him. I called him on the phone just to locate his house, the microbrigade building where he lives next to the Almendares River."
The number seven corresponds to Luis Raúl González Pardo, who piloted a MiG-29 as part of the second pair of fighters that participated in the attack. Domínguez explains that González-Pardo held the rank of lieutenant colonel and that "he had been part of the second group of Cuban pilots that went to the Soviet Union, probably in 1989 or 1990, to learn how to fly" that type of aircraft.
Luis Domínguez's outrage is evident as he describes what happened. "Those people (the four volunteers from Brothers to the Rescue who died in the attack) had no guns on board and were murdered by military MiGs designed for warfare against civilian planes. Very brave, very brave against civilians. It would be a different story if they had faced American military forces, but that’s not the case, because there is no bravery in that."
The case of González-Pardo gained judicial relevance this week when he was sentenced to seven months in prison in a federal court in Jacksonville, Florida, for immigration fraud for concealing his Cuban military history —from 1980 to 2009— in his immigration forms.
In addition to that sentence, González-Pardo is mentioned in a federal accusation alongside Raúl Castro and three other Cuban military personnel for the murder of the four activists: Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, whose bodies were never recovered.
The ICAO concluded in July 1996 that the attack occurred in international waters and that Cuba violated international law by failing to make prior communication with the aircraft. Three civilian vessels—a cruise ship, a fishing boat, and a sailboat—witnessed the shootdown, and their position confirmed that the planes were not in Cuban airspace.
Domínguez, whose research is key to identifying the five pilots involved in the attack, summarizes his commitment with a powerful phrase: “I have had these people in my sights since the day this happened, and I promised myself that I would find out every single detail.”
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