Sylvia Iriondo

* 1945

Cuba, Cuban dissident
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    They shot down the planes of Brothers to the Rescue

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    “In these three planes, one was piloted by Carlos Costa, a Brothers to the Rescue’s pilot, and carried on board Pablito Morales, a Brothers to the Rescue’s volunteer, who had been saved in the Straits of Florida previously by Brothers to the Rescue, and that when he saw the planes above his raft and saw the possibility that he would arrive safely through the efforts of Broth-ers to the Rescue, he had promised God that if he reached the land of freedom, he would do it for other Cubans what Brothers to the Rescue had done for him. And that is why Pablito was a volunteer for Brothers to the Rescue and was in the plane with Carlos Costa, a volun-teer pilot for Brothers to the Rescue. Another of the planes was piloted by Mario Manuel de la Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr. was on board, as a volunteer, it was Armando's first humani-tarian flight to the Straits of Florida. And in the other plane, there were three in total, the pres-ident of the Brothers to the Rescue, José Basulto, was piloting it, Arnaldo Iglesias, Brother to the Rescue as co-pilot and my husband Andrés and I as volunteers. There, in broad daylight, without prior notice and in international airspace, under the orders of the dictators Fidel and Raúl Castro, they dispatched Cassas planes, MIGs of the Castro’s, and first shot down the plane piloted by Carlos Costa with Pablo Morales on board, and immediately afterwards, the plane piloted by Mario Manuel de la Peña with Armando Alejandre Jr., pulverizing them in the air, in international airspace.”

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    Tugboat 13 de Marzo

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    “[One of the reasons for founding MAR for Cuba] was the sinking of the tugboat 13 de Mar-zo where 37 Cubans, men, women and children, including a 6-month-old baby, were killed in a massacre. How did it happen? There was a group of Cubans trying to escape the island in search of freedom aboard an old tugboat, the tugboat 13 de Marzo. When they were 8 miles from the Cuban coast, at midnight, other tugboats of the regime came, they called them pola-rgos, started to send huge jets of water. When the mothers and the people on the deck came out in terror asking for clemency, those jets of water literally tore these Cubans from the deck of the tugboat, throwing them into the sea and sinking them. They literally tore the baby of six months from the arms of his mother who was begging for mercy. Jorge García, a Cuban, whom I have the honor and privilege of knowing him, and who has accompanied us in many international events where he has recounted his heartbreaking testimony, lost 14 family mem-bers in that massacre operated by the Castro dictators.”

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    Daddy would go on a trip

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    “So one day, after seeing our worried parents talking quietly at night, during the day they told us that my father would go on a trip. Indeed he did, in June 1960, with one of my brothers, Cecil Arturo. Papi was involved, we didn't know it at the time, in clandestine movement in Cuba, with his brother Fredy. And their names had come out on the shortwave radios and they were already in danger of being discovered. In order to continue their work, they went into exile.”

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    Miami, USA, 20.04.2018

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The exile is the living example of a Cuban in freedom

Sylvia Iriondo, 2018
Sylvia Iriondo, 2018
photo: Post Bellum
photo: Post Bellum
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Sylvia Iriondo was born on January 26, 1945 in Havana to a middle-class family. Soon after the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Sylvia and her siblings learned that their father was involved in anti-regime activities and had to leave the island. Her father emigrated to Miami, and a couple of months later the rest of the family, including Sylvia, gathered in exile. Sylvia began helping Cuban refugees in need in Miami through the International Rescue Committee and the Cuban Refugee Aid Program. Although Sylvia is married in Miami, has three children and has been a successful real estate agent since the 1970s, she has never ceased to feel obliged to fight for a free Cuba. Her efforts, but also her circumstances, resulted in the establishment of the MAR (Mothers and Women Against Repression in Cuba) organization in 1994. In the early 1990s, the Hermanos al Rescate civilian pilots were formed to monitor and assist ships in need of Cuban refugees, and MAR participated in their humanitarian flights as a volunteer support service. On February 24, 1996, the Cuban regime tried to stop one of these rescue operations and shot down two of the three Hermanos al Rescate aircraft in international airspace. Sylvia and her husband were in the third plane and survived. Sylvia continues to fight for a free Cuba and sees great inspiration in post-communist European countries as well as a role model in the example of Václav Havel. He continues to believe that Cuba will one day be free and that the strong Cuban community, which does its best for it, will one day achieve that.

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