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Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, a former lieutenant colonel of the Cuban Air Force who has been imprisoned in Florida for several months for immigration fraud, could become the most valuable witness in the legal proceedings against Raúl Castro regarding the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes in 1996.
On Wednesday, May 20, the Department of Justice declassified a formal indictment filed by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida against the former ruler and five ex-military personnel, including González Pardo, for the death of four Cuban American pilots.
González Pardo is the only one of the six accused who is physically under custody in U.S. territory, which places him in a unique position concerning justice.
Her identity remained hidden for decades under the secret code "22" in the operational radio communications.
It was the private investigator Luis Domínguez, based in South Florida, who identified him after analyzing the recordings from that day and alerted the FBI about his presence in Florida.
"In aviation, codes are used on the radio to avoid knowing who is who, so he was code number 22. Although he made mistakes, and many times, two or three times, he said the pilot's name instead of the call sign, that’s how it’s said in Cuba," explained Domínguez to Telemundo 51.
According to the researcher, González Pardo was in the second group of aircraft that took off that day from the San Antonio de los Baños airbase.
"He knows who was in the control tower, who gave the orders. There's no one else here who has that kind of information," he stated.
The constitutional lawyer Joseph Malouf warned that time is working against the prosecutors: "After 30 years, you have witnesses who move away, who forget, evidence that was not collected or preserved properly," he said to Telemundo 51.
Precisely for this reason, González Pardo—the only accused person in custody on U.S. soil and with direct knowledge of the events—represents an invaluable asset in bringing to justice the individual who was the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces when the order for the shootdown was given.
González Pardo permanently entered the U.S. in April 2024 through the humanitarian parole program, after serving in the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force and Air Defense from 1980 to 2009, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In April 2025, he applied for permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act, falsely denying in his forms that he had received military training or served in armed units.
The FBI arrested him in early November 2025 for fraud and misuse of immigration documents and false statements to a federal agency, charges that could lead to up to 15 years in prison.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi was unequivocal: "This man's history as a long-time military pilot for the evil Castro regime, which has caused immeasurable suffering to the Cuban people, should have been front and center in his immigration file."
Now, with the expanded charges, González Pardo is also facing accusations of murder and destruction of aircraft alongside Raúl Castro and four other former military personnel: Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, and Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez.
The regime reacted with total rejection. During the government-affiliated program Mesa Redonda, Deputy Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío described the accusation as "fraudulent" and lacking "legal, political, or moral support," while Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called it a "farce" from Havana.
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