The researcher Luis Domínguez, from the project Represores Cubanos, presented in an interview with Tania Costa at least four categories of evidence that demonstrate that the shootdown of the aircraft of Hermanos al Rescate on February 24, 1996 occurred in international waters, contradicting the official version of the Cuban regime.
Domínguez was direct in pointing out that Havana has material that incriminates it: "Cuba has recordings of this, which of course they are not going to show because it backfired on them when they shot them down in international waters."
According to the researcher, the only evidence the regime has presented to support its version is a hand-drawn map: "Cuba has only done one thing to sustain its lies, which is to create a handmade map, placing the aircraft of Hermanos al Rescate in Cuban territorial waters."
In light of this, Domínguez lists concrete and independent evidence.
The first point is the American radar records: "There are radars that have the exact location of these small planes on that day, they are American radars," he stated, anticipating the regime's argument that this data could also be manipulated.
The second category involves three civilian vessels that were in the area at the time of the attack: a cruise ship, a fishing boat, and a sailboat.
"There were three ships there that witnessed these planes being shot down in international waters. Why international waters? Because those vessels did not have access to Cuba and could not enter Cuban territorial waters," Domínguez explained.
On board those three vessels were hundreds of people who were direct witnesses to the attack, and there is recorded footage of the smoke left by the missiles after they struck the aircraft.
The third and most compelling evidence, according to Domínguez, comes from a study that he himself was unaware of for years: the report from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), completed in June 1996.
"I found out around 2014-2015, and when I saw that I nearly fell over because it revealed other things I didn't know," declared the researcher about that document, which the ICAO concluded determined that the shootdowns occurred in international airspace, 18 and 30.5 miles from the Cuban coast.
What makes this report particularly revealing, according to Domínguez, are the transcripts of communications between the control tower of the San Antonio de los Baños Military Airport and the Cuban pilots: "There you have the directions these pilots receive from the control tower of the San Antonio de los Baños Military Airport, where they are told 20 kilometers, 20, 30, 25 kilometers north of Playa Baracoa, Santa Fe. That is international waters."
For Domínguez, that operational communication is the definitive proof: "In other words, you liars are contradicting yourselves."
The immediate context of these statements is the seven-month prison sentence handed down on Thursday against Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, former lieutenant colonel of the Cuban Air Force, for immigration fraud in a federal court in Jacksonville, Florida.
González-Pardo, identified by Domínguez as one of the five pilots involved in the downing, also faces much more serious federal charges for conspiracy to murder American citizens, alongside Raúl Castro and three other pilots, concerning the deaths of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.
The federal indictment against Raúl Castro was declassified on May 20, 2026 by a federal grand jury in Miami, and the Florida Attorney General had reopened the criminal investigation in March 2026.
Domínguez concluded his analysis with a warning that encapsulates his stance on the regime's official narrative: "Remember that passion can never take the place of reason. So it's time to learn the true history."
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