U.S. Indicts Cuba’s Raul Castro in 1996 Shootdown of Two Civilian Planes

Federal prosecutors in Miami on Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging former Cuban leader Raul Castro with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destroying aircraft over the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes, CBS News and Al Jazeera reported. CBS News said Castro was indicted in Miami on April 23, and Al Jazeera reported the announcement was made at Miami’s Freedom Tower by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

On Feb. 24, 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue, an exile group that began operating in 1991 and located rafters at sea. Four people were killed: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Pena and Pablo Morales, Al Jazeera reported. Castro was Cuba’s defense minister then. Prosecutors say he met military leaders in January 1996 and authorized deadly action against the planes, CBS News reported.

Five other defendants, all Cuban fighter pilots, are also named. CBS News reported that Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez faces conspiracy, murder and aircraft-destruction counts and was first indicted in 2003, in a case that was never tried, while four other pilots are charged with conspiracy over training flights that allegedly tracked small civilian aircraft off Cuba’s coast. The indictment also describes a Cuban intelligence operation that used the so-called Wasp Network spy ring to infiltrate the group, CBS News reported.

“This isn’t a show indictment,” Blanche said, adding that the Justice Department intends to try the case, according to CBS News. Al Jazeera quoted him saying, “For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice.” FBI Director Kash Patel called the indictment “a major step toward accountability,” Al Jazeera reported. Cuba does not extradite people to the United States, and Blanche said there are “all kinds of different ways” to bring defendants from abroad without giving details, CBS News reported.

Cuba rejected the charges. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla called them “illegitimate and illegal” called Brothers to the Rescue a terrorist group and said Washington is using the case to justify “intensified aggression against the Cuban people,” CBS News reported. President Miguel Diaz-Canel called it “a political manoeuvre, devoid of any legal basis,” according to Al Jazeera. The United Nations’ civil aviation body found the planes were outside Cuban airspace, a finding Cuba denies, CBS News reported.

The indictment arrives amid a broader American pressure campaign on Havana. CBS News reported that the administration has threatened tariffs on countries that ship oil to Cuba, contributing to energy shortages and grid failures, and that CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Castro’s grandson in Havana the previous week. The administration has also offered $100 million in humanitarian aid, CBS News said. President Trump called the indictment “big news” and a “very important day” for Cuban Americans, and said he did not believe escalation would be necessary, although he has not ruled out military action, CBS News reported.

Supporters of the administration’s approach, including many in South Florida’s Cuban exile community, say the charges deliver accountability that was long overdue. Crowds at the Freedom Tower waved Cuban flags and chanted “Libertad,” and one woman told CBS Miami that “nobody cared enough until now.” Critics include Senate Democrats Ruben Gallego, Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff, who renewed a war powers resolution on Cuba after the announcement and had introduced the measure in March to require congressional approval before aggressive action against Cuba, Al Jazeera reported.