MIAMI — During an event on Wednesday at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch announced there was a warrant for Raúl Castro’s arrest after an indictment.
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For the fatal 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes, the indictment charged Castro, 94, with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder.
“The United States and President Trump does not and will not forget its citizens,” Blanch said during the announcement.
RELATED VIDEOS: Watch the speeches during Raul Castro indictment announcement at Freedom Tower
The indictment also charges five co-defendants — Lorenzo Perez, Emilio Palacio, Jose Gual, Raul Simanca, and Luis Gonzalez — with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder.
“They have been looking for this moment for 65 years,” Trump said on Wednesday about Cubans and Cuban Americans in Miami.
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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.
RELATED DOCUMENT: Read the 20-page indictment
“For 30 years, their families waited for answers. This FBI never forgot,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a statement released on X.
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
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Interactive graphic: 4 Brothers to the Rescue killed
This is a developing story.
