Florida has filed a murder charge against Raúl Castro, accusing the former Cuban leader of ordering the 1996 shootdown that killed four South Florida men on a mission to rescue Cuban refugees.
Story Highlights
- Florida’s warrant charges Raúl Castro, 95, Cuba’s former president, with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
- Florida prosecutors say Castro ordered Cuban fighter jets to shoot down two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes on Feb. 24, 1996.
- Four men were killed: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
- The state case runs alongside federal murder charges against Castro unsealed in May.
Four Men Who Never Came Home
Florida says Raúl Castro gave the order that killed four men from the Miami area, and that is why the state has charged him. The men were Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. All four flew with Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group started in 1991 by José Basulto. Its pilots flew small planes over the Florida Straits to spot Cubans fleeing on rafts and alert the U.S. Coast Guard so they could be pulled from the sea.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996, three unarmed Cessna planes took off from Opa-locka Airport in Miami-Dade County. After they crossed south of the 24th parallel, well outside Cuba’s territorial waters, Cuban MiG fighter jets fired air-to-air missiles and destroyed two of them. Officials say both planes were flying away from Cuba and got no warning. An international aviation investigation in 1996 found the planes were shot down over international waters.
What Florida Is Charging
On Monday, Oct. 19, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, the state’s top law enforcement officer, announced the warrant at a news conference in Miami. Castro faces one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which means planning a killing together with others. It is a first-degree felony, and the court ordered no bond, so he could not be released on bail if arrested. Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of Miami-Dade’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit signed the warrant.
“Raúl Castro ordered the murder of four Floridians in cold blood, and Florida will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy,” Uthmeier said. He also said, “It was not an accident what happened. It was murder.” Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz told the victims’ families, “You should never have had to have waited this long.”
How the Case Reaches Florida
In 1996, Castro was Cuba’s defense minister and first vice president. The sworn statement behind the warrant names him as a final decision-maker who authorized the attack. It quotes him giving standing orders: “Fine, shoot them down at sea when they show up, and those who have the authority are not to consult anyone.” Castro later followed his brother Fidel as Cuba’s president.
The state’s claim to the case rests on what happened on Florida soil. Prosecutors say agents of a Cuban spy ring known as the Wasp Network worked in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, slipped into Brothers to the Rescue and passed its flight plans to Havana. Florida’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, which handles crimes that cross county lines, will lead the case. Officials said more charges are possible.
The Federal Case and Cuba’s Response
A federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday, May 20, charges Castro and five others. Castro faces one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destroying an aircraft. U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, the top federal prosecutor in South Florida, said the federal case “laid the groundwork” for the state charges. He described the two as “two separate prosecutions, each standing on their own,” under a rule called dual sovereignty, which lets a state and the federal government each bring charges for the same crime.
Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said the federal indictment has “no legal basis.” Cuban officials have long argued that earlier Brothers to the Rescue flights entered Cuban airspace despite warnings. Castro lives in Cuba. Uthmeier said he could be sent to Florida for trial if he travels to certain countries that would hand him over.
What It Means for Justice
For the families of the four men, the warrant puts a name and a charge on a killing they have waited 30 years to see answered. Florida has put on record that a foreign leader who orders the death of its residents will be charged as a murderer. “We’ll be ready to bring the case however needed,” Uthmeier said. The warrant stands, and officials say the case remains active.
Sources:
insiderpaper.com, fdle.state.fl.us, miamiherald.com, cidh.oas.org, cbsnews.com, courtlistener.com
