Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Mr. President, the premeditated, cold-blooded murder of four American citizens by Cuban war planes last Saturday is an…”

“Mr. President, the premeditated, cold-blooded murder of four American citizens by Cuban war planes last Saturday is an outrage, an outrage against the United States of America, against international law, and against every concept of human decency. Neither the United States nor the world community can allow these murders to go unpunished. The four Americans who were killed were part of Brothers to the Rescue, an organization that has helped to save countless Cuban citizens who risked their lives to flee oppression and poverty in their country. Without the Brothers' heroic, humanitarian efforts, thousands of Cuban families would have died on the open seas. How did the Cuban Government react to this heroism? How did it reward those who had saved thousands of its own citizens? It carried out the ruthless execution of four of these brave Americans. The Cuban Government can try to argue that its actions were justified as an act of self defense, but the whole world knows the truth--that Cuban MiG's pursued and shot down the crews of two unarmed Cessna aircraft. The whole world was watching, Mr. Castro. It was not self-defense. It was cold-blooded murder.”