MIAMI — The U.S. has indicted Raúl Castro, the former president of Cuba, a senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
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Cuban exiles expect the official announcement from the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday afternoon at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami.
Castro was accused of ordering the Cuban Air Force shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue Cessna 337 Skymasters that had departed from the Opa Locka Executive Airport at about 3:20 p.m. on Feb. 24, 1996.
Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales were in the Cessna 337C, and Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre were in the Cessna 337B — both planes were registered in the U.S., records show.
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Air-to-air missiles fired from Cuban Air Force MiG-29 fighter jets hit both planes — killing Alejandre, 45; Costa, 29; and De la Peña, 24, who were U.S. citizens; and Morales, 29, a U.S. resident, records showed.
“Both Cessna aircraft broke up in the air from the explosions of the missiles, the wreckage impacted the sea and sank,” according to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s report.
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Related document: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 1999 report
Interactive graphic: 4 Brothers to the Rescue killed
This is a developing story.
