Federal and state officials have indicted former Cuban official Raúl Castro for his role in the 1996 shootdown of two unarmed civilian planes, an attack that killed four volunteer pilots.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia, and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones jointly announced the charges. The indictment focuses on the February 24, 1996 deaths of Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, who were volunteering for the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue.
“On February 24, 1996, Raúl Castro and his criminal gang murdered Americans and our fellow Floridians,” Attorney General Uthmeier said. “Upon taking office in 2025, I directed our Statewide Prosecutors to reopen a previously closed case file on Raúl Castro. Working hand-in-hand with United States Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones and his team at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, accountability starts here, in Florida, with this indictment.”
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The indictment states that Castro, who was serving as the Minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces at the time, authorized the military chain of command that led to Cuban MiG-29 fighter jets firing air-to-air missiles at the civilian aircraft.
According to prosecutors, the operation relied on a network of Cuban spies operating within Florida’s Eleventh and Sixteenth Judicial Circuits. These spies gathered and passed along the intelligence that allowed the Cuban military to target the flight.
The incident occurred after three unarmed U.S. civilian planes took off from the Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade County. Cuban military jets intercepted them over international waters. The two targeted planes were flying away from Cuba and outside of Cuban territory when they were destroyed without warning, despite being in contact with the air traffic control tower in Havana. The four victims included three U.S. citizens and one U.S. national. A third plane was pursued by the Cuban military but managed to escape and return safely.
The prosecution will be handled jointly by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution.
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