Florida Seeks Justice for 1996 Plane Shootdown Linked to Castro
Florida charges Raúl Castro with conspiracy to murder four Floridians in 1996 plane incident.
2 min read
Florida has taken a significant step in its long-standing pursuit of justice for the 1996 downing of two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes, securing an arrest warrant for Raúl Castro, the 95-year-old former Cuban leader. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that state prosecutors and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have obtained the warrant, charging Castro with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the incident that killed four Floridians.
A 30-Year Pursuit of Justice
“Raul Castro ordered the murder of four Floridians in cold blood, and Florida will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy,” Uthmeier said. The four men killed were Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña, and Armando Alejandre Jr. The incident occurred on February 24, 1996, when three unarmed Cessnas took off from Miami Opa-Locka Executive Airport and were shot down by Cuban MiGs over international waters.
According to the affidavit, Castro, then Cuba’s armed forces minister and first vice president, was the final decision-maker in the chain of command that authorized the attack. Prosecutors claim he gave his generals a standing order to shoot the planes down at sea when they appeared and instructed those with the authority not to consult anyone first. The plot allegedly reached into South Florida, with Cuban spies in the so-called Wasp Network operating in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, infiltrating Brothers to the Rescue and supporting a Havana scheme dubbed “Operation Scorpion.”
Legal and Political Context
The state charge comes on top of a federal indictment, with the U.S. Justice Department also charging Castro in Miami over the same shootdown. The warrant was signed by Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. The Office of Statewide Prosecution will handle the case as a multi-circuit organized criminal conspiracy, with officials indicating more charges are possible.
Castro, the last man standing from the 1959 Cuban revolution, has a long and controversial record. He fought alongside Fidel in the 1953 Moncada Barracks attack, sailed back to Cuba on the yacht Granma in 1956, and led a rebel front in the Sierra Maestra. After seizing power, he ran summary trials and firing squads in Oriente province, including the January 1959 massacre at San Juan Hill in Santiago, where over 70 people were tried and shot.
Castro’s health has been failing, with reports of a recent stroke and his absence from the July 26 revolution ceremony for the first time in decades. For the families of the four men murdered over the Florida Straits, the clock is ticking as they await justice.
Source: Daily Wire
