After weeks of anticipation, local, state and federal leaders on Wednesday unveiled the indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five others in the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that killed four humanitarian pilots.
They made the announcement on Cuban Independence Day in Downtown Miami’s Freedom Tower, where thousands of Cuban immigrants slept in the days after the island’s 1959 revolution.
“Our message is clear,” said acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who flew to Miami for the event. “The United States and President Trump will not forget the murder of American citizens.”
The charges come at a fraught time for Cuba and the United States. Just months after U.S. troops swooped in and arrested Venezuelan President Nicholás Maduro, many questioned whether American troops would invade the island.
On February 24, 1996, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña, Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales were flying near the island in international waters when the Cuban military fired at them. In the Freedom Tower press conference and the one that preceded it in Washington, D.C., speaker after speaker called the indictment a long-overdue and important piece of history.
“The day of justice is finally arriving,” said U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, who spoke in the morning along with fellow Congress members Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar. “This was a premeditated murder of three Americans and one U.S. resident. Premeditated and ordered by Raúl Castro himself.”
Castro, 94, was charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder. Also charged were members of the Cuban military, Jose Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raul Simanca Cardenas and Luis Raúl Gonzalez- Pardo Rodriguez.
All could face either life in prison or the death penalty if captured; only one of them, González-Pardo, is currently behind bars. He was charged with immigration fraud last year. The government said that he falsely claimed that he had received neither military nor weapon training.
The ceremony on Wednesday was crowded with jubilant Miamians. Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo pointed out that his city has “more Cubans than any other city in the United States.”
“We hope that today doesn’t just stay as a symbol, but it is followed through with some quick and decisive action to bring freedom to Cuba,” he said. “I see this as the first step when it comes to change for the island.”
Caplin News Reporter Alejandro Marquina contributed to this report.
