First modification:
The event took place on Friday, but it was not until today that the Cuban authorities confirmed it through an official note. This is not the first time that something like this has happened. The news comes in the midst of a strong economic crisis that the Caribbean island is experiencing.
“From movie”. This is how some Cubans described on social networks the theft of a state plane by a Cuban pilot who headed north and landed in the state of Florida, in the United States. And it is that what the young Rubén Martínez achieved cannot be cataloged in any other way, taking into account the strong surveillance that these means of transport have on the Caribbean island.
The event happened on Friday, but it was not until this Saturday that the Cuban authorities informed public opinion through an ‘informative note’, as information of great importance is usually headed.
According to the authorities, “on Friday, October 21, 2022, an AN-2 type aircraft, identified with flight CNI 400, registration CU A1885, belonging to the National Air Services Company (ENSA), took off from the Economic Unit of Base of the ENSA of Sancti-Spíritus, at 07:00 hours, bound for the “El Cedro” runway to carry out agricultural fumigation tasks. After completing its second application flight, the aircraft, piloted by the captain on board Rubén Martínez Machado, did not return to the runway.
Cuban civil aviation reports on fact that violated aeronautical regulations
So far, the Cuban civil aviation authorities have not received official notification from the United States Agencies pic.twitter.com/zyOtmm5L9F
— Cubadebate (@cubadebatecu) October 22, 2022
The note was released by the Cuban Institute of Civil Aeronautics and was immediately published in the island’s main newspaper, the ‘Granma’ newspaper. In it, it was reported that Captain Martínez had a license to fly valid until October 30 of this year.
Both US and independent media outlets echoed the news. “However, so far, the Cuban civil aviation authorities have not received official notification from the United States Agencies,” the Cuban authorities pointed out.
Cuba concluded the note with a strong call to combat “air piracy”, a crime defined in international conventions ratified by both Washington and Havana.
A Cuban pilot landed a Russian plane at the Dade-Collier airport in Ochoppee, Florida, after escaping from the island, according to various media reports.
?? The aviator, identified as Rubén Martínez, is being questioned by the authorities. pic.twitter.com/bX8wPjRREo
— Telemundo News (@TelemundoNews) October 21, 2022
“This fact represents a violation of Cuban airspace, operational safety and aeronautical regulations, in correspondence with the Annexes of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention)”, the information pointed out.
The note concluded with the affirmation that the facts are being investigated in detail with the information that is available.
A dangerous precedent
This is not the first time such a theft has happened. Cuban independent media recall the escape of Brigadier General Rafael del Pino, who in a small Cessna with part of his family at the end of the eighties. Also that of Major Orestes Lorenzo, who arrived in the United States in a MIG-23 combat plane, also Soviet-made.
It is also known that in the early 1990s one of the five Cuban spies sent by the Cuban government to monitor the activities of hostile groups against the island, René González, escaped in a similar model plane as an alibi to seek asylum in the United States. Joined.
René was later arrested and returned to Cuba along with two of his companions, as part of the agreements to resume diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States. Today they are “heroes of the Republic of Cuba” and fulfill dissimilar functions in the political and social life of the country.
On several occasions, the Cuban authorities have ratified that the delay in the pronouncement or the lack thereof creates a dangerous precedent for the rise of plans to steal this equipment. Which can create a wave of kidnappings and endanger the security of both nations.
The cause and the exodus
The economic crisis that the Cuban people have experienced, due to the lack of an effective plan by the government and the harsh sanctions that the US government imposes on the largest of the Antilles, make it impossible for Cubans to have a life without constant setbacks.
The coronavirus pandemic, the high price of fuel and adding to a group of measures imposed by the Trump administration, propelled the island into one of its strongest economic crises, only compared to the so-called “special period” at the beginning of the 90s, after the fall of the socialist camp, its main economic ally.
The United States Customs and Border Protection department has registered the arrival of at least 200,000 Cubans at its borders from October last year to September 2022. A figure that exceeds the 1980 migration crisis, when some 125,000 people left the port of Mariel in seven months.
With EFE and local media
