Cuba Protests US Asylum for Hijacker

Havana, Feb 28 (ACN) On February 27th, Cuban deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, summoned Benjamin Ziff, Charge d’ Affairs at the US Embassy in Havana to formally convey his country’s energetic protest for the granting of political asylum to Cuban citizen Ruben Martinez Machado, who hijacked a Cuban civilian airplane on October 21st, 2022.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry had requested in four previous verbal notes the return of the air pirate and the airplane, which is owned by the Empresa Nacional de Servicios. S.A. (ENSA)

In those previous four notes and in the recent protest, Cuba reiterated that air piracy actions constitute typified crimes in several international conventions ratified by Cuba and the United States; that this action is a violation of air space, operational security and Cuban aeronautical regulations in tune with what’s been established on the annexes of the International Convention on Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), and that impunity of actions of this nature constitutes a negative and dangerous precedent.

Granting political asylum to someone who hijacked a plane with emigration aims is also a violation of what is stipulated by the US-Cuba Joint Declaration for migration, signed by the two countries January 12, 2017, which establishes the two sides’ obligation to discourage illegal acts linked to irregular migration, promote bilateral effective cooperation to prevent and process the trafficking in persons, and migration-related crimes which endanger national security including the hijack of planes and boats.

The Cuban deputy foreign minister recalled that the history of air piracy encouraged and tolerated by the United States with destabilizing aims and hostile policy against Cuba is well known and its consequences are negative and sensitive and that this should be a lesson to learn by the US administration which should assume responsible stance in the face of such serious acts.

The Cuban Foreign Minister deplores the decision of the US administration and its judicial system, which makes them accomplices and promoters of air piracy and hijack, crimes that if tolerated and protected could lead to similar illegal acts with negative consequences for both countries’ national security.