Florida charges former Cuban president Raúl Castro with murder conspiracy over 1996 shootdown

Florida has secured a state arrest warrant charging former Cuban president Raúl Castro with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the 1996 downing of two civilian planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based exile group that searched for Cuban migrants at sea.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the warrant Oct. 19, accusing Castro, 95, of directing spies to infiltrate the group and ordering the attack. The state case follows a federal indictment announced in May over the same incident.

“Raúl Castro ordered the murder of four Floridians in cold blood, and Florida will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy,” Uthmeier said in the press release announcing the warrant. “The Castro regime’s spies operated in our communities, fed intelligence to Havana, and helped put civilian pilots in the crosshairs of Cuban MiGs.”

Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit signed the warrant, which lists one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, a first-degree felony. The court ordered no bond.

The case stems from the Feb. 24, 1996, attack in which Cuban MiG fighter jets destroyed two unarmed Cessna aircraft over international waters and killed all four men aboard: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales. The Department of Justice previously described the flight as a planned humanitarian mission to search for Cuban migrants in distress in the Florida Straits. 

According to the state’s announcement, Castro, then Cuba’s defense minister and first vice president, gave the final authorization for the shootdown. The release said Castro gave senior military leaders standing orders: “Fine, shoot them down at sea when they show up, and those who have the authority are not to consult anyone.”

Florida bases its claim of jurisdiction on alleged acts carried out in Miami and the Florida Keys by Cuban intelligence agents belonging to the Wasp Network. 

As Zeale News previously reported, federal prosecutors announced a superseding indictment against Castro and several other Cuban officials May 20 on charges including four counts of murder, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals.