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The U.S. Department of Justice will present a federal indictment next Wednesday, May 20, against Raúl Castro for the murder of four individuals during the downing of two planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, according to two sources familiar with the investigation cited by the Miami Herald.
The grand jury indictment will be unveiled during an event organized by the Federal Prosecutor's Office for the Southern District of Florida at the Freedom Tower in Miami, coinciding with Cuba's Independence Day, and will pay tribute to the four victims: Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña, Carlos Costa, and Pablo Morales.
The central piece of the accusation would be an audio recording from June 1996 in which Castro can be heard describing the decision-making process regarding the shootdown: "I said they should try to take them down over the territory, but they would enter Havana and leave... Well, take them down in the sea when they appear."
That record, if authenticated before a court, would demonstrate that Castro did not merely give a general order, but actively participated in the decision.
Furthermore, Congressman James McGovern stated in December 2014 that Castro himself confessed to him: "I gave the order. I am the one responsible."
On February 24, 1996, Cuban MiG fighters shot down two unarmed Cessna planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue over international waters in the Florida Straits, as determined by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The four victims were Cuban Americans searching for rafters at sea. Their bodies were never recovered.
A third aircraft, with the organization's leader, José Basulto, on board, managed to escape.
Both Raúl and Fidel Castro publicly assumed responsibility for the order, but they were never prosecuted for three decades.
Federal judge James Lawrence King ruled at the time that the Cuban government acted "in an outrageous disregard for international law and basic human rights" by "murdering four human beings in international airspace over the Strait of Florida."
The families of three victims received a civil compensation of 187 million dollars. Cuba refused to pay, but Washington authorized the transfer of 93 million dollars from frozen Cuban assets to the relatives.
The accusation comes in a context of maximum pressure from the Trump administration on the Cuban regime, which includes enhanced sanctions and a coordinated legal campaign against officials of the Communist Party.
This Friday, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, traveled to Havana and met with Cuban officials, including Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of Raúl Castro and lieutenant colonel of MININT, during a visit that the Trump administration framed as a message that Cuba must make fundamental changes.
When asked about the possible accusation on board Air Force One, President Trump avoided confirming it: "I'll let the Department of Justice speak on that. But they need help, as you know."
In March 2026, the Florida Attorney General reopened the criminal investigation into the case, and Cuban-American congress members such as Rick Scott, Carlos Giménez, Mario Díaz-Balart, and María Elvira Salazar formally demanded that the Department of Justice charge Castro.
In November 2025, the Department of Justice had already charged the former Cuban pilot Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez with immigration fraud for concealing his military history related to the downing.
Raúl Castro, who will turn 95 years old next June, still holds the highest formal authority in Cuba as the First Secretary of the Communist Party, although Miguel Díaz-Canel serves as the president of the country.
Analyst Brian Fonseca from Florida International University warned that the accusation could extend beyond symbolism: "The formal accusation is symbolic; it represents the act of charging one of the arch-nemeses of the Cuban-American community and the architect of the Cuban Revolution, which has failed," he stated. However, he added that it could also serve to "unlock new instruments of American power, such as operations by U.S. law enforcement in Cuba."
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