ESCAPE TO FREEDOM
On March 20, 1991 Cuban soil off from the largest Orestes Lorenzo in a MIG-23 fighter , the most modern aircraft of the Cuban Air Force .
Speeding and crossed low altitude in less than 10 minutes to 150 miles that separate Cuba from the United States. As I was almost level with the sea, or the Cubans or Americans radar noticed his presence, so it could land safely at the Naval Air Station Boca Chica in the Florida Keys. Orestes sought asylum in America, and for once the interrogations he underwent, he received political refugee status.
The defection of Orestes Lorenzo was a slap in the face of the Castro regime. The biggest Lorenzo was one of the elite pilots of the Air Force. Veteran War Angola, had made two periods of training in the Soviet Union. It was during the last one, and with the Gorbachev's perestroika running, when Orestes began to question the Communist regime and his life in Cuba. In the Soviet Union began to uncover the collapse of the system and blowing winds of freedom.
On his return he began to plan his defection, hoping that once the United States, his wife Victoria and their two children could join him.
After escaping in the plane and as a refugee, demanded the release of his family on the island, but met with refusal Raul Castro , then Commander of the Armed Forces.
Castro Raul Castro in any way allowed to leave Cuba to the family of a military elite who had betrayed the trust placed in him and had made a mockery of the regime.
Orestes then turned to the human rights commission of the UN, to no avail. Coinciding with the Ibero-American summit held in Madrid in 1992 with the presence of Fidel Castro, made a protest chaining themselves to the gates of the Parque del Retiro . Queen Sophia kept a good relationship with Castro, he made personal efforts to achieve the release of his wife and two children in Cuba. Even the matter came to the office of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Everything was unsuccessful. Raul Castro, through his personal assistant sent him the answer to Victoria:
" Tell your husband that if he had the guts to take a plane, who is also coming to pick you personally ..." ;
Orestes Lorenzo went so far as to publish an open letter to Fidel Castro in the Wall Street Journal, which gave to stand trial in Cuba if allowed the wife and kids travel to the United States . There was no answer.
Orestes for the release of his family at a rally in NY
With few prospects of its international efforts, desperation took hold in the former Cuban military. Then decided that if he did not succeed in public, he would go to get his family.
knew the Russian planes, but had be trained in conventional western models. Got
sport pilot license in a short time and with $ 30,000 provided by a humanitarian organization of Cuban exiles, he acquired an old twin-engine plane Cessna 310 in order .
Through a couple of Mexican friends who traveled to Cuba, sent his family secretly date, exact place and time where they had to wait for the rescue had begun. The day chosen was
Dec. 19 at five in the afternoon. Took off from a small airfield near Miami, warning that if not returned within a couple of hours, should give up for dead.
Road near the beach "El Mamey" meeting place
Flying at low altitude (2 m above the sea to avoid radar), the ship approached the island at dusk, the narrow road opposite the beach of El Mamey, near Varadero, 150 kilometers east of Havana. Meanwhile, his wife and children waiting on the road as agreed, they heard the purr of the engine and saw the device.
What Lorenzo had not planned his meticulous plan was that at that time the road was busy. The stage could not be worse, because in the tranche for landing agreed a car, a harrow, a bus with tourists and a huge stone in the middle of the road. Balancing
wings, the pilot almost touched the roof of the car, landed and arrested eight meters from the bus with tourists petrified in their seats and eyes almost pop out of their sockets.
Nearly two years after separation, Lorenzo was running his family appear in front of the plane. In the race, Alexander, the youngest child, lost a shoe.
To prevent a tragedy with the helices and prepare for the takeoff, turned the unit in U and opened the door of the cabin. All in less than a minute. Orestes
got off the ground but the fear inside the plane was doing his job. Vicky was staring at the sky fearing Cuban fighters appeared. Prayed. At one point put his arms around her two sons and her ears not to hear if the worst happened.
The children were frightened, confused, crying. Only when the aircraft passed the 24 th parallel, the limit of the airspace of Cuba, the tension eased a little.
Almost an hour later, the spacecraft landed back in Florida.
Orestes Lorenzo's family after landing in the United States
The media frenzy that caused the deed of Orestes was tremendous, as a second had time to be embarrassed by the Castro regime. In the first press conference said
"Tell Raul Castro that I have spoken and I have personally gone to pick up my family"
Orestes is currently a successful businessman who runs his own construction company in Miami, which in Cuba, never could have done.
Source: Dr. Gonzalo Paredes. Rodericus.
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