The Department of Justice of the United States is taking steps to present a criminal indictment against Raúl Castro, 94 years old, former president of Cuba and former head of the Armed Forces, in connection with the shooting down of two planes belonging to the humanitarian organization Hermanos al Rescate in 1996, according to official sources cited by CBS News.
The potential charge, which still needs to be approved by a grand jury, would focus on the attack of February 24, 1996, when MiG-29 fighters from the Cuban Air Force shot down two unarmed Cessna aircraft over international waters, killing four people.
The victims were Armando Alejandre Jr., 45 years old; Carlos Costa, 29; Mario de la Peña, 24; and Pablo Morales, 29, all citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. Their bodies were never recovered.
The Organization of American States determined that the shootdowns occurred nine and ten nautical miles outside of Cuban territorial airspace, in violation of international law.
At that time, Fidel Castro was the leader of the country and Raúl was at the head of the Armed Forces. Fidel acknowledged to journalist Dan Rather that the military acted under his "general orders" to intercept planes entering the country.
Declassified FBI documents reveal that there was an "Operation Venice," planned since February 13, 1996, to down the aircraft. The pilots identified as those directly responsible were twin brothers Lorenzo Alberto Pérez Pérez and Francisco Pérez Pérez, lieutenant colonels in the Cuban Air Force, who were also charged in the U.S. but were never extradited.
The only person convicted so far in the case was the Cuban intelligence agent Gerardo Hernández, sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit murder for having passed information about Brothers to the Rescue to the regime's intelligence services. He was released in the prisoner exchange of December 2014.
The possible accusation against Raúl Castro is part of a maximum pressure campaign by the Trump administration on the Cuban regime. The federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida launched months ago an initiative to prosecute leaders of the Cuban Communist Party, with a task force that involves federal agencies, local authorities, and the Department of the Treasury.
This week, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, traveled to Havana and met with "Raulito" Rodríguez Castro, grandson of Raúl, to deliver Trump's message that the U.S. is "willing to engage in serious dialogue on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes."
A CIA official added that Cuba "can no longer be a refuge for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere."
In March, the Florida Attorney General reopened the criminal investigation into the shooting down, and Republican Senator Rick Scott along with Cuban-American congress members formally requested the Department of Justice to charge Castro and bring him to U.S. justice.
The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, reacted to the report with enthusiasm: "Let it roll, it's about time!"
Raúl Castro formally stepped down as leader of the Communist Party in 2021, but he remains one of the most powerful figures in the regime. He has never set foot on U.S. soil, and there is no extradition treaty between Cuba and the U.S., making the accusation a move of significant symbolic and political value in Washington's pressure strategy on Havana.
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