Basulto founds Brothers to the Rescue to aid Cuban refugees

José Basulto, a Bay of Pigs veteran and Cuban exile, founded Brothers to the Rescue in Miami in May 1991 after a fifteen-year-old Cuban rafter named Gregorio Pérez Ricardo died while being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard. The organization flew small Cessna aircraft over the Florida Straits to locate rafters fleeing Cuba, dropping supplies and radioing the U.S. Coast Guard their positions. At its peak, Brothers to the Rescue claimed to have saved over 4,000 lives and was celebrated as a humanitarian lifeline for Cubans escaping the island.