Former Cuban President Raúl Castro was charged with murder and six other counts by a U.S. federal grand jury in connection with Cuba's February 1996 shootdown of two aircraft operated by the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue, according to ABC News. The indictment was returned on April 23 and unsealed May 20.
Among the charges are conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and destruction of aircraft, along with a separate murder count for each of the four men who died, according to ABC News. The victims were identified as Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, three of whom held U.S. citizenship.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges at a press conference held at Miami's Freedom Tower. "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 told ABC News.
According to ABC News, Brothers to the Rescue operated out of Miami and ran airborne search operations looking for Cuban refugees trying to cross the Florida Straits. Cuban intelligence operatives were embedded within the organization during the early 1990s, U.S. officials allege, passing along information about the group's flight activities that Cuban military commanders later drew on to carry out the attack.
Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, who was born in Cuba, described the indictment as "long overdue" and said it carries deep meaning for the families of the victims and the broader Cuban community, according to CBS News. President Donald Trump, asked about the case aboard Air Force One, declined to comment directly and said he would defer to the Justice Department, adding that Cuba is "a nation in decline," CBS News reported.
Though Castro formally left his post as head of Cuba's Communist Party in 2021, he is still considered by many to hold enormous influence within the country, according to CBS News. At the time of the 1996 shootdown, he led the Cuban armed forces. Whether Castro will ever be brought to trial in the United States remains an open question, according to ABC News.
Jose Basulto, the founder of Brothers to the Rescue, said the indictment represents a long-denied measure of justice. "It means for me, Justice. Justice has been denied for years," Basulto told CBS News.