PRESIDENT Clinton yesterday ordered a series of retaliatory measures against Cuba in response to its shooting down of two US civilian aircraft over the weekend.
"The downing of these these planes demands a firm response from both the United States and the international community," the President said.
The new punitive measures include the use of Cuban assets frozen in the US to compensate the victims' families, a total ban on US flights to Cuba and additional restrictions on travel by Cuban officials in the US.
A National Cuban American Foundation spokesman, Mr Jose Cardenas, said the group would also urge the administration to approve the Helms Burton Bill in Congress that tightens the economic grip on Cuba. The group also wants Washington to call back the head of its Interest Section in Havana.
The White House activity came as Cuba asserted it had evidence that the planes were shot down over its waters and that it was holding a pilot from the group that organised the flights, Brothers to the Rescue, which overflies the Straits of Florida to help Cubans who are fleeing the country by sea.
The White House spokesman, Mr Michael McCurry, insisted that regardless of where the planes were shot down, Cuba had failed to follow procedures set forth under an international convention. The US yesterday circulated a draft resolution at the UN Security Council condemning the action.
A Cuban embassy spokesman in Copenhagen, where the Cuban Foreign Minister, Mr Roberto Robaina, was visiting said one of the pilots of the Miami planes was in Cuba.
Later media reports and exile leaders in Miami said a member of a Cuban exile group now suspected of being a Cuban spy returned to the island the day before the incident. The man, Mr Juan Pablo Rogue (41), is suspected by Brothers to the Rescue of infiltrating the group on behalf of Cuba.
Mr Rogue, a former Cubans MiG pilot, defected four years ago and joined Brothers to the Rescue to help search for Cuban rafters and became a well known figure in the exile community. He wrote a book, Defector, that featured photos of him posing with such influential figures as Dr Castro's brother, Raul, the army chief, and later with Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen, a Florida Republican.
"Cuba has proof, from radars observations to recordings off radio communications and other transcripts and course maps, showing that the planes were shot down on Cuban territory", Mr Robaina said on Danish television.
He cut short his Scandinavian visit to go to the UN and asked the Security Council to delay action until it heard him.
Mr McCurry acknowledged the brothers group had recently become "somewhat more aggressive... That has been a source of concern." In Florida, Cuban exile groups have reacted by taking to the streets with shouts of "war" and "vengeance."