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The federal justice system of the United States declassified today an expanded indictment in the Southern District Court of Florida against Raúl Castro and five members of the Revolutionary Air Force for the downing of two civilian aircraft from Brothers to the Rescue on February 24, 1996, which resulted in the deaths of four Cuban Americans.
The court document—a "Motion to Unseal Superseding Indictment" in case No. 03-20685-CR-SEITZ(s)—was signed by federal prosecutor Abbie D. Waxman and submitted under the supervision of prosecutor Jason A. Reding Quiñones. Alongside Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz, the other five defendants are Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Bárzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, and Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez.
Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez is the pilot who fired the missiles that destroyed the two small planes. Born in 1959 in Las Tunas, he was a veteran of 74 combat missions with over 1,000 flight hours, 500 of which were in MiG-29 aircraft. His missiles caused the instant death of Mario de la Peña, Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, and Pablo Morales, whose bodies were never recovered.
Emilio José Palacio Blanco piloted a MiG-23 ML fighter jet that also took part in the operation, internally known as "Operation Scorpion."
José Fidel Gual Bárzaga and Raúl Simanca Cárdenas formed the second pair of fighters that took off from the San Antonio de los Baños base. Both were flying a MiG-23 UB 704 two-seater with the mission of intercepting the third plane, which was carrying José Basulto, founder of Brothers to the Rescue, and Silvia Iriondo, from the organization MAR por Cuba.
They were unable to bring it down: Basulto hid among the clouds and, when the pilots located him again, they were already approaching U.S. airspace and were denied authorization to proceed.
Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, lieutenant colonel of the DAAFAR, piloted the MiG-29A 911 in the pursuit of Basulto's aircraft. He was also unable to bring it down for the same reasons. His case gained recent relevance because he emigrated to the United States in April 2024 through a humanitarian parole visa and was arrested in November 2025 for immigration fraud for concealing his military background in his permanent residency application. He faces up to 15 years of federal prison for those charges.
The central evidence of the accusation is an audio recording of Raúl Castro from June 1996, in which the then Minister of the Armed Forces describes the order he issued: "I said to try to shoot them down over land, but they would enter Havana and leave... Well, shoot them down at sea when they show up; and don’t consult those who have the authority."
The only person convicted so far in the case was Gerardo Hernández, a member of the Cuban espionage network known as the "Cuban Five," sentenced in 2001 for conspiracy to commit murder and released in 2014 as part of a prisoner exchange.
José Basulto, the pilot who managed to escape that February 24, reacted with emotion to the accusation: "I have wished for this for a long time. I have wished for justice to be served, for justice to become a reality."
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