Florida to charge former Cuban president Raul Castro over 1996 plane shootdown

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday that the state will pursue criminal charges against former Cuban President Raul Castro over the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft that killed four people associated with a Cuban exile group.

Castro, 95, faces a state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, with Uthmeier accusing him of authorizing the attack on aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Florida-based organization that helped Cubans fleeing the island.

A Miami judge signed an arrest warrant for Castro on Friday at the request of Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The warrant was approved by the chief judge of Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit Court.

“Raul Castro called for the planes to be shot down. He called for murder,” Uthmeier said during a news conference Monday at Florida International University’s College of Law in Miami.

The state’s case draws heavily on a federal indictment announced in May that included charges related to murder and the destruction of an aircraft.

According to the state complaint, Castro was Cuba’s minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and first vice president when he gave final authorization for the planes to be shot down.

Investigators allege that agents of Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence, operating as part of the Wasp Network, infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and reported the group’s flight plans. The network operated in the Miami area and the Florida Keys.

“It was not an accident. What happened was murder,” Uthmeier said. “What happened? It was murder. The evidence makes abundantly clear that there was a conspiracy.”

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said the federal indictment helped establish the foundation for the state prosecution.

“Our historic federal indictment laid the groundwork, and James and his team have now taken the important step of bringing charges under Florida law,” Quiñones said at the news conference.

Uthmeier acknowledged the practical challenges of prosecuting the former Cuban leader, who is 95 and remains outside U.S. custody.

“I'm not ignorant of the fact that Raúl Castro is an older man who's probably not looking to march himself into Miami,” Uthmeier said. “I think others would get him before the court of law would, but at the end of the day, we stand ready to prosecute the case.”

The announcement took place inside FIU’s Campora Justice Courtroom, named in honor of the four men killed in the Feb. 24, 1996, attack: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.

The aircraft were operated by Brothers to the Rescue, whose members conducted search-and-rescue missions to assist Cubans fleeing the island. Cuban military aircraft shot down two of the group’s planes over international waters, killing all four people aboard.

“Raul Castro ordered the murder of four Floridians in cold blood, and Florida will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy,” Uthmeier said in a news release.

He added that the arrest warrant represented an effort to pursue justice for the victims three decades after the attack.

“Thirty years later, we are still fighting for justice for Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Pena, and Armando Alejandre Jr.,” he said.