Former Cuban President Raúl Castro Indicted
The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of two civilian-flown planes in 1996, killing four U.S. nationals.
On May 20, the Department of Justice announced the unsealing of a superseding indictment charging former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five Cuban air force pilots for their alleged roles in the deaths of four U.S. nationals on Feb. 24, 1996. A grand jury in the Southern District of Florida filed the charges under seal on April 23, which includes one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destruction of an aircraft, and four counts of murder.
At the time, Castro was Cuba’s Minister of Defense and oversaw the chain of command for the Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force (DAAFAR). The filing alleges that Castro ordered the five pilots to follow and destroy three unarmed civilian aircraft manned by Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR), a Miami-based nonprofit organization that was involved in anti-Castro, pro-democracy movements in the 1990s. The indictment alleges that in January 1996, Castro instructed Cuban agents to obtain details on the BTTR’s upcoming flights and, in the following month, orchestrated training missions for the DAAFAR pilots to find, track, pursue, and intercept small civilian aircraft off the coast of Cuba.
You can read the superseding indictment here or below:
