Justice Department Charges Raúl Castro and Five Former Cuban Officials in 1996 Brothers to the Rescue Shoot-Down

The Justice Department on Wednesday unsealed a superseding indictment charging Raúl Castro and five other former Cuban officials and officers in the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes over international waters, an attack that killed four men and now reaches Cuba’s former top leadership.

According to the department, the defendants are charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder in the Feb. 24, 1996, destruction of two unarmed U.S. civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based humanitarian group. Castro, 94, of Holguín, Cuba, later served as Cuba’s president from 2008 to 2018 and was head of Cuba’s armed forces at the time of the shoot-down. The other defendants are Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez of Las Tunas, Cuba; Emilio José Palacio Blanco; José Fidel Gual Barzaga; Raul Simanca Cardenas; and Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez.

The Justice Department alleges that Cuban fighter jets fired air-to-air missiles at the two civilian Cessna aircraft outside Cuban territory, over international waters, killing everyone aboard. The victims were Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.

Brothers to the Rescue was a Miami-based organization that flew humanitarian missions over the Florida Straits searching for Cuban migrants in distress. Prosecutors allege the operation was planned using intelligence gathered by Cuban agents who had infiltrated the group in the early 1990s.

The announcement came at a Miami event honoring the victims. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in the United States for alleged acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens.” The department said the murder and conspiracy counts carry statutory maximum penalties of death or life imprisonment if the defendants are convicted.

A 1996 finding by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that oversees international civil aviation, concluded that the planes were shot down in international airspace and that adequate warning was not given. Earlier U.S. cases tied to the incident focused on Cuban intelligence operatives, but the new indictment extends to senior leadership.

The Justice Department said Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez, 65, is already in U.S. custody and is awaiting sentencing later this month in the Middle District of Florida in a separate immigration-related false-statements case. An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.