Trial in the U.S. against former Cuban pilot accused of the downing of Brothers to the Rescue is postponed

The trial against the former Cuban military pilot Luis Raúl González-Pardo, accused of shooting down two planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, has been postponed at least until September, according to court documents released by the agency EFE.

The process was scheduled to start on Monday, August 24, but both the defense and the prosecution requested a postponement due to the extraordinary volume of material they need to review. U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles, from the Southern District of Florida, scheduled a follow-up conference for September 2 with both parties to define the next steps in the process.

One of the court documents explained the reason for the postponement as follows: "The Government has informed the defense that this case involves a significant volume of evidence, which includes classified material, obsolete media, and physical evidence from three decades ago, as well as reports that were not previously stored in electronic format."

González-Pardo, 65 years old and former lieutenant colonel of the Cuban Air Force, is the only one of the six accused in the federal charge who remains in U.S. custody. The others—among them Raúl Castro, 95 years old—are considered fugitives beyond the reach of that country's justice system.

The accusation identifies him as the pilot of the MiG-29A known as "Code 22" during the operation on February 24, 1996, when Cuban fighters shot down two Cessna 337 aircraft over international waters in the Florida Strait. In the attack, Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña, and Pablo Morales -three U.S. citizens and one permanent resident- were killed, and their bodies were never recovered. A third aircraft, piloted by José Basulto, founder of the organization, managed to escape.

Although González-Pardo did not shoot the missiles, the prosecution maintains that his involvement in the conspiracy makes him equally responsible. "Not having fired does not mean that he is not responsible for a conspiracy to kill American citizens," argued the federal prosecutors.

The former pilot faces charges of conspiracy to assassinate U.S. citizens, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder. If convicted, he could receive a life sentence and a fine of up to $250,000.

His judicial history in the United States began in November 2025, when the FBI arrested him in Jacksonville for immigration fraud: he had concealed nearly three decades of service in the Cuban Air Force when applying for humanitarian parole in April 2024 under the Biden administration. For that crime, he was , a sentence he had almost completed when he was transferred to Miami to face charges related to the shootdown.

The court ordered his preventive detention, considering that there was "a serious risk that he would not appear" at the trial. Juan Michelin was assigned to him as a federal public defender, as it was determined that he qualified for state-funded legal representation.

This process is the first to be formally held after the criminal charges filed in May 2026 by Attorney General Todd Blanche against Castro and four other former Cuban military officials, amidst increasing pressure from the Trump administration on the Havana regime.

The charges against Raúl Castro carry a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment, although the former dictator remains in Cuba with no immediate possibility of being extradited.