Hero To Go

When Cuban Air Force Brigadier General Rafael del Pino Diaz boarded a small Cessna 402 one afternoon last week along with his wife and three children, he apparently told Cuban airport authorities that he merely intended to take a flying jaunt around the island. Instead, he headed for Key West Naval Air Station 90 miles away. Picked up by radar, the Cessna attracted the attention of two F-16 fighters, but they allowed Del Pino to pass after clearance from the control tower. Upon landing, the general turned himself over to U.S. military and immigration officials, becoming the highest-ranking officer to defect from Cuba since Fidel Castro's takeover 28 years ago.

Del Pino told Justice Department officials that he was recently appointed deputy chief of staff in the Cuban Armed Forces Ministry. Described as an "internationalist commander" in official Cuban press reports, Del Pino reportedly served as chief of air troops in Angola, where 30,000 Cuban soldiers are helping the Marxist regime battle U.S.-backed rebels. According to U.S. officials, he also helped oversee the Cuban military setup in Nicaragua. Said a Justice Department spokesman: "He's in a position to know pretty much anything we'd want to find out about the Cuban military -- and a lot of other things."

Cuban authorities quickly discredited the prize defector. For most of his career, they said, Del Pino had been a lowly flight instructor. He was grounded in January for psychological stress and eyesight problems, they added, and was assigned to organize an air force museum.

But there seemed little doubt that Del Pino was a genuine Cuban air hero. Born 48 years ago in Pinar del Rio province, where his father owned several movie theaters, Del Pino as a teenager attended Harrison Chilhowee Baptist Academy in Seymour, Tenn., then returned to Cuba. At 14, he was arrested for demonstrating against Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. In the late 1950s, he joined Castro's revolutionaries.

After Castro overthrew the Batista regime, Del Pino learned to fly. Piloting a tiny T-33 trainer during the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Del Pino shot down two U.S. B-26 bombers. The exploit, recounted in his 1969 book Dawn at the Bay of Pigs, made him a legend. He rose rapidly through the ranks and, in 1975, became a first commander. He was trained in the Soviet Union at the Yuri Gagarin Aviation College. As of last week, however, Del Pino was anything but admired by Cuba's Communist rulers. Characterizing his defection as "strange and treacherous conduct," the Armed Forces Ministry said it has "irreparably stained his life, his history and his honor."