Florida's attorney general has confirmed the reopening of the criminal investigation into the 1996 shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue planes, which killed four people, including three U.S. citizens. This move directly implicates Raúl Castro as the main figure. Deemed a crime against humanity, the case does not expire and could lead to an international arrest warrant.
On February 24, 1996, Cuban MiG jets shot down two single-engine planes from Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based nonprofit founded in the early 1990s. The group patrolled international waters searching for Cuban rafters fleeing the island. The victims were U.S. citizens Mario de la Peña, Carlos Costa, and Armando Alejandre, along with permanent resident Pablo Morales.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier confirmed the reopening of the criminal investigation. “When injustices are committed against Florida citizens, both under state and federal law, those responsible must be held accountable,” Uthmeier stated regarding the 1996 events.
Earlier records from the case, opened in the early 2000s, charged two combat pilots and an Air Force general for the killings. The incident was also linked to a Cuban spy network captured in 1998, where at least two agents infiltrated the organization and provided detailed flight route and schedule information to the Cuban government, aiding the military operation.
Those two agents were part of the Cuban Five, who returned to Havana in 2014 after a prisoner exchange under Barack Obama's administration. There are now calls to include the ultimate decision-maker, 94-year-old Raúl Castro, who along with his brother Fidel ordered the shootdown.
The tragedy sparked a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Havana, leading weeks later to the passage of the Helms-Burton Act, which tightened the embargo. The Cuban regime justified the shootdown by claiming it occurred in Cuban waters, while accusers maintain it happened over international waters.
A key obstacle is that Raúl Castro does not reside in U.S. territory. An old bilateral extradition treaty exists but has not been applied since 1959. Additionally, the Cuban state's control over the incident's narrative hinders gathering evidence and testimonies. Nevertheless, the case's political and moral weight is being prioritized, drawing on precedents like Nicolás Maduro's capture on January 3.
