Havana, February 27. A Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refers that the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, summoned the United States Chargé D’Affaires, Benjamin Ziff, to the Ministry, to formally convey Cuba’s vigorous protest at the granting of political asylum to the Cuban citizen Rubén Martínez Machado, the perpetrator of the hijacking of a Cuban civil aircraft on 21 October 2022.
In the statement “The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs deplores this decision by the US government and its judicial system, which effectively makes them accomplices and sponsors of piracy and aircraft hijacking - crimes which, if tolerated and protected, could encourage similar unlawful acts with adverse repercussions for the national security of both countries.”