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Many in the hard-line Cuban American community in Florida never have trusted President Clinton. The distrust turned to a feeling of betrayal last May when the United States reached an agreement with President Fidel Castro's government that allowed Cuban rafters to be returned to Cuba, rather than granting them automatic political asylum in the United States. Later last year, the Clinton administration announced a loosening of some travel and communications restrictions as well.
Frustrated by what many viewed as a softening of the traditional U.S. hard line toward Castro, several groups, including Brothers to the Rescue, embarked on a much more confrontational approach.
This included an incident July 13, when the exile community organized a flotilla that tried to penetrate Cuban waters but was turned back. Two days later, Castro warned that Cuban patience "can run out" with those who violate Cuban waters and airspace. In August, the Cubans deployed several antiaircraft batteries along Havana's waterfront, and again warned that aircraft entering would be shot down.
Knowledgeable sources said that Castro ordered the Cuban military to make sure Cuban airspace and waters were not violated again.
On both Jan. 9 and Jan. 13, however, small airplanes flew over Havana, dropping anti-Castro leaflets, urging people to rise up against the government.
"The Cubans were absolutely livid, and the military was embarrassed," said Wayne Smith, who headed the U.S. Interests Section in Havana during the Carter administration and was in Havana during the January incidents. "The military promised Castro that they would not let this happen and it did. So the order went out to shoot them down. . . . And what had the U.S. government done to try to prevent those incursions? That group consistently filed false flight plans and no one lifted a finger."
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/02/27/cuban-actions-timing-puzzling-to-observers/681150c8-57ca-4f19-a423-91bfa2d1829f/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/02/27/cuban-actions-timing-puzzling-to-observers/681150c8-57ca-4f19-a423-91bfa2d1829f/
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