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The United States Department of Justice on Wednesday announced criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro over his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two humanitarian aircraft that killed four men, including three U.S. citizens.
According to a newly unsealed federal indictment, Castro faces seven criminal counts, including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft and murder related to the deaths of the four passengers aboard planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue.
The organization conducted humanitarian and rescue missions for Cuban migrants attempting to flee the island nation.
The indictment represents a major escalation in longstanding tensions between the United States and Cuba, though it remains unclear whether the 94-year-old former Cuban leader will ever appear in a U.S. courtroom.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges during a press conference in Miami after the indictment, originally returned by a federal grand jury on April 23, was unsealed.
“For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in this country, in the United States of America, for acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens,” Blanche said.
“Nations and their leaders cannot be permitted to target Americans, kill them, and not face accountability,” he added. “President Trump is committed to restoring a very simple but important principle: if you kill Americans … we will pursue you no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold, and in this case, no matter how much time has passed.”
Blanche also said, “The United States government has not forgotten these innocent men who were shot out of the sky.”
Cuban officials sharply condemned the indictment, with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel calling the charges a “political maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation, aimed solely at padding the fabricated dossier they use to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”
Cuba’s foreign minister defended the 1996 operation as an act of “legitimate defense” and accused U.S. officials of relying on false claims while ignoring historical evidence.
According to the Justice Department, Brothers to the Rescue operated flights over the Florida Straits searching for Cuban migrants in distress. U.S. officials allege Cuban intelligence agents infiltrated the organization during the early 1990s and relayed detailed flight information back to the Cuban government.
Federal prosecutors say that intelligence was later used by Cuban military leaders to plan the Feb. 24, 1996, operation that resulted in the planes being shot down. The attack killed Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. Three of the victims were American citizens.