United Nations Press Statement on the 1996 Opa-Locka Shootdown, (7 March 1996) New York, NY

“United Nations Press Statement on the 1996 Opa-Locka Shootdown,” delivered March 7, 1996, Basulto, José (1940-present)

José Basulto, “United Nations Press Statement on the 1996 Opa-Locka Shootdown,” United Nations Press Conference, Box 10 (28), Office Records Media/Speaking/Mic Press Conferences, Press Conferences section, U.N. Press. Conf. Transcript Folder, Hermanos al Rescate Papers, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami, Miami, Florida.

This prepared press conference transcript was recovered and transcribed by Isabella Baker. Isabella found the text during a research trip to the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection. We have found no known video recordings of this speech or other versions of the speech. We were granted copyright permissions to post this speech from the Cuban Heritage Collection Digital Archives at the University of Miami.

The copy-text has been thoroughly checked for accuracy and proofread by Isabella Baker, Gabriela Tomasi da Silva, and Skye de Saint Felix. We have retained the original document’s paragraph structure and paragraph numbers were added in brackets. This copy-text remains as close to the original transcription as possible. Minor corrections were made for misspelled words and small grammatical errors to make the speech more readable. Double hyphens (–) became em dashes (—). Other corrections are marked below. The number corresponds to the paragraph where corrections were made:

[1] “the were downed” became “that was downed”

[1] A comma was added after “Mr. Mario de la Peña”

[1] “assasined” became “assassinated”

[1] after “young men are here,” the physical cue “holds up poster with photos” was omitted to preserve only Basulto’s spoken words

[2] “other” became “others”

[3] The word “as” was added after “human rights as well”

[3] “hat govern” became “that govern”

[6] “be still” became “still be”