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Luis Raúl González-Pardo, a former pilot of the Cuban Air Force who is currently in U.S. custody and has just been included in the federal charges against Raúl Castro for the downing of the aircraft of Brothers to the Rescue, pleaded guilty in January to charges of immigration fraud and will be sentenced on May 28 in a federal court in Jacksonville, Florida, reported The New York Times.
González-Pardo, a 65-year-old retired lieutenant colonel, has been in prison since last November for lying to U.S. immigration authorities.
The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida charges him with fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents, as well as making a false statement to a federal agency, charges for which he could face up to 15 years in prison.
The sentencing for these offenses is scheduled for next Thursday in Jacksonville.
In Cuba, González-Pardo served in the Revolutionary Cuban Air Force and Air Defense for nearly 30 years, from 1980 to 2009, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.
After his military retirement, he took on the role of Deputy Chief of Terminal 2 at José Martí International Airport in Havana, where flights to and from the United States operate and which is highly monitored by State Security.
The former pilot entered the United States for the first time in May 2017 without disclosing his military history, and returned in April 2024 through the humanitarian parole program of the Biden administration.
In April 2025, they submitted Form I-485 to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to apply for permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act, stating in the document that they had not received military training, served in an army unit, or participated in groups that used weapons.
The FBI arrested him in early November.
The Attorney General Pamela Bondi was unequivocal in assessing his case: "This man's past as a long-time military pilot for the evil Castro regime, which has caused immeasurable suffering to the Cuban people, should have been at the forefront of his immigration file."
On Wednesday, González-Pardo was included in a substitute accusation along with Raúl Castro and four other Cuban military personnel: Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Bárzaga, and Raúl Simanca Cárdenas. All face charges of conspiracy to murder American nationals and four counts of murder.
According to the report, he piloted the MiG-29A 911 during the pursuit of the aircraft belonging to José Basulto, founder of Hermanos al Rescate, but was unable to shoot it down because the plane was already approaching U.S. airspace. He is not credited with having fired the missiles.
It was the activist Luis Domínguez, a researcher at the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, who identified him after studying a report from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) from 1996 containing radio transcripts between the MiG pilots and their base.
He was in one of those MiGs that day. And he is the only one here whom we can talk to that can tell you who participated," declared Domínguez to the newspaper The New York Times.
"It was a process. A lot of patience was required," added the researcher, who shared the information with federal authorities and congress members.
González-Pardo is the only one of the six defendants currently in U.S. custody, making him a potential key witness in a future trial. If he is found guilty in the new charge, he could face life imprisonment.
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