The judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, president of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, signed a state arrest warrant with no bail for Raúl Castro, aged 95, for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the shootdown of two planes from Brothers to the Rescue on February 24, 1996.
The Florida Attorney General, James Uthmeier, publicly announced the measure this Monday, following a state investigation that began in March. The order was obtained with the participation of the Office of Statewide Prosecution and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
According to reports from the Miami Herald, which obtained the order and the supporting affidavit, the judge found probable cause to believe that Castro conspired with Cuban agents operating in Florida to commit the murders.
Cuban spies and the evidence of the conspiracy
The sworn statement submitted on October 16 establishes Florida's jurisdiction based on the activities of two Cuban agents infiltrated in Brothers to the Rescue who operated in Miami and Key West.
According to the document, weeks before the downing, the spies were instructed to relay information about the organization's flights to the Cuban authorities and conducted surveillance on the Naval Air Station in Key West.
The espionage network ordered its infiltrators not to fly with Brothers to the Rescue between February 24 and 27, 1996. One of them left Florida on February 23 and returned to Cuba, just one day before Cuban Air Force jets shot down the two civilian aircraft.
There are well-founded reasons to believe that the accused, Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz, conspired with others to commit first-degree murder against [...] the individuals traveling aboard the aircraft of Brothers to the Rescue, states the affidavit, according to the excerpt reproduced by the Miami Herald.
Researchers believe that the transmission of information regarding flights and the surveillance of U.S. military facilities provides sufficient evidence to establish that part of the alleged conspiracy occurred in Florida.
A statement from the Attorney General's Office of the state asserts that, as part of that conspiracy, Castro and the Cuban regime utilized spies operating within the Eleventh and Sixteenth judicial circuits of Florida, whose intelligence information enabled the identification of Hermanos al Rescate's aircraft as targets.
The order requires Florida authorities to seek Castro's extradition if he is arrested outside of the state, a provision that would allow them to request his transfer from another U.S. jurisdiction.
Two legal cases against Raúl Castro
The state action is independent of the federal charges filed by the Department of Justice on May 20, 2026, which accused Castro and five other former Cuban military personnel of seven counts: four of individual murder, two of destruction of aircraft, and one of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens.
Among the supporting evidence related to the shooting down, there is an audio recording from June 21, 1996, lasting 11 minutes and 32 seconds, in which Castro describes the order he issued: “Take them down in the sea when they appear; and do not consult those who have the authority.”
The audio was released in August 2006 by journalist Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who was then a reporter for El Nuevo Herald. Its authenticity was examined by voice analysis specialists and confirmed by Alcibíades Hidalgo, former personal secretary of the dictator Fidel Castro.
On February 24, 1996, Cuban MiG fighters shot down two Cessna 337 aircraft over international waters in the Florida Straits, resulting in the death of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, three U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident. Their bodies were never recovered.
Although the Cuban regime claimed that the aircraft had entered its airspace, both the United States and an international investigation by the United Nations concluded that the shootdown occurred over international waters.
Castro was then the minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba and, since May 2026, is considered a fugitive from federal justice after failing to appear before the court.
The only accused currently in U.S. custody is Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, a former lieutenant colonel of the Cuban Air Force, who was transferred to Miami in June 2026 and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Family members of the victims received the announcement with restrained relief. "Justice has been served. Not completely, but it is something," one of them stated. Another added, "My father fought for a free Cuba. That was the most important thing to him. It was all that mattered to him."
As long as Castro remains in Cuba, the execution of state and federal arrest warrants faces legal and diplomatic hurdles, including the lack of an operational extradition mechanism between Havana and Washington.
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