MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Wednesday, May 20th 2026 - 18:29 UTC
“If you kill Americans, we will pursue you, no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold, and in this case, no matter how much time has passed,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said
The US Department of Justice on Wednesday filed formal charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro and five other Cuban military officers on counts of murder, conspiracy to murder US citizens, and destruction of aircraft, in connection with the shootdown on 24 February 1996 of two civilian planes operated by the anti-Castro organization Brothers to the Rescue. The indictment, approved on 23 April by a grand jury of the Southern District of Florida, was unveiled at the Freedom Tower in Miami on the same day the Cuban diaspora commemorates Independence Day, a date the Havana regime does not celebrate. It is the first time in nearly 70 years that a senior leader of the Cuban regime has faced criminal charges in the United States over events that resulted in the deaths of US citizens.
The other defendants are Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, and Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez. Four crew members died in the shootdown: Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales. Three of the victims were Cuban-American citizens; Morales was a legal resident of Cuban origin. Brothers to the Rescue operated humanitarian missions to assist rafters in the Florida Straits. The International Civil Aviation Organization ruled at the time that the incident took place in international waters, contradicting the Cuban regime's version, which claimed to have acted in defense of its sovereign airspace.
