The story of the 1996 shootdown that could lead to Raúl Castro's indictment

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May 18, 2026 / 6:44 PM EDT

/ CBS News

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In February 1996, three small civilian planes took off from a Miami-area airport, operated by a Cuban exile group that searched for people seeking to flee the island nation in rafts. Two of the planes were shot down by a Cuban fighter jet, killing four people.Now, 30 years later, the deadly shootdown appears to be the focus of a potential federal criminal case against one of the most powerful figures in Cuba.The U.S. is taking steps to indict Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old who led Cuba after the retirement of his older brother, Fidel, CBS News was first to report last week. An indictment would mark an escalation of the Trump administration's pressure campaign against Cuba and a new phase in the U.S.' long, tense relationship with the Castro family.The organization that flew the planes, Brothers to the Rescue, was founded in the early 1990s by José Basulto, a Cuban American who has described himself as a participant in the Bay of Pigs invasion, the botched CIA-sponsored operation to oust Fidel Castro in 1961.