The Truth behind the Movie “Wasp Network”
By John Dorschner
Small Omissions Can Mean a Lot, Part XXXLXIII:
After watching the Wasp Network on Netflix last night, I went back and looked at a story I wrote more than 20 years ago to see how reality matched up with the cinema tale of the Cuban spies who infiltrated organizations in Miami in the 1990s.
The core incident happened on Feb. 24, 1996, when Cuban MiGs shot down two unarmed Cessna Skymasters operated by Brothers to the Rescue.
I spent more than a month analyzing this incident for the Miami Herald. What follows is based on recordings made by US and Cuban air traffic controls:
“At 2:57 p.m., Basulto [Jose, head of Brothers] was approaching the 24th parallel — an imaginary dividing line in the Florida Straits that marks the boundary of the airspace controlled by Miami FAA from the airspace controlled by Havana Center. Basulto called Havana and announced that in five minutes he would be crossing the 24th parallel. He passed along his transponder code and said: ‘Brothers to the Rescue and myself, president of the organization, Jose Basulto, send you warm greetings.’
“An anonymous voice at Havana Center responded: ‘Roger, sir, we inform you that the area north of Havana is activated. You are taking a risk by flying south of 24.’ ”
In the movie, the Cuban controller too has the “taking a risk” comment, as well as Basulto’s smart-ass answer: “We know that we are in danger each time that we fly into the area south of 24, but we are ready to do so as free Cubans.” As a matter of fact, he had heard this warning many times before, and nothing had ever happened.
In the movie, the MiGs then shoot down two of the three duly warned Cessnas.
What the movie doesn’t report: The planes had NOT invaded Cuba’s territorial space. They had passed an imaginary demarcation line between the area handled by U.S. air traffic controllers and the area handled by their Cuban counterparts. The planes were still 40 miles away from Cuba’s territorial boundary. They had every legal right to be there.
In fact, the MiGs were already in the air hunting the Cessnas before they reached the 24th parallel. Juan Pablo Roque, a Cuban spy who had joined the Brothers, had gone back to Havana the previous day and undoubtedly told them about the flight. Not only that, U.S. intelligence agencies also knew there could be a serious problem that day, and one Washington official spent a sleepless night worrying.
An unusual array of U.S. radars were focused on the Cessnas that day. One of the radars was monitored by Jeff Houlihan in a Customs control room in California. He saw the zooming MiGs and the plodding Cessnas. He warned the U.S. Air Force, which did nothing. No U.S. official warned Basulto before or during the flight.
“At 3:01p.m.,” I wrote, “Basulto’s plane crossed the 24th parallel, and several minutes later, the other two planes followed. At 3:11 p.m., Cuban radar operators directed the MiGs to a spot about 20 miles north of Havana, eight miles outside of Cuban airspace. …
There is no indication in the tape recordings, either those made by the United States or those made by Cuba, that the pilots or ground control were concerned whether the Cessnas had crossed the Cuban territorial limit.”
A minute later, Basulto’s plane had drifted 1.5 nautical miles within Cuban airspace. “Basulto’s plane was equipped with a sophisticated global positioning system that could accurately reflect his position within 300 feet. Either Basulto wasn’t paying attention, or he intended to tweak the Cuban defense system just a little. In either case, Basulto’s infringement of Cuban airspace did not occur until after the MiGs had already begun their attack run….
“From two miles above and behind the Cessna carrying Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales, the MiG-29 fired a 10-foot-long R-73 missile with an infra-red homing device. Costa was at least nine nautical miles north of Cuban territory, heading north. Blindsided by a streaking missile, he would not have had even a second’s warning.
“MiG-29 pilot: ‘We hit him. Cojones. We hit him. . . . This one won’t mess around anymore.’”
Seven minutes later, a MiG fired on a Cessna carrying Mario de la Peña and Armando Alejandre, Jr. At that moment, they were at least 10 miles outside Cuban airspace. Headed north.
Basulto’s plane, with three passengers — the only one that had been inside Cuban air space — escaped back to Miami.
The movie focuses on the spies. I’m told that Penelope Cruz — portraying the wife of one of them — managed a decent Cuban accent and mannerisms. The four dead Brothers appeared only briefly, through the windshields of their Cessnas. I’m including their photos here so they’re not forgotten.
This is a distillation of a long story I wrote after the incident. Basulto had certainly been toying with Cuban authorities for a long time, and he had alienated the Washington power structure. Still, the Cuban Air Force firing heat-seeking missiles at the Cessnas was like a Green Beret slaughtering 4-year-old kids with machine gun blasts. It was murder, pure and simple.
