MIAMI — The United States government has declassified a superseding federal indictment against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro Ruz and five other former Cuban regime officials for their alleged responsibility in the shootdown of two civilian aircraft belonging to the organization Brothers to the Rescue on February 24, 1996, an incident that left four people dead.
The indictment was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, which alleges that the defendants participated in a conspiracy to destroy U.S. civilian aircraft in international airspace and cause the deaths of American citizens.
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Also charged alongside Castro were former Cuban generals Álvaro López Miera, then head of the Revolutionary Air Force, and other senior military officials allegedly connected to the chain of command that, according to U.S. authorities, carried out the operation.
According to the Department of Justice, the aircraft belonged to Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization dedicated to locating and assisting Cuban rafters in the Florida Straits. The planes were intercepted and shot down by Cuban military fighter jets even though, according to the indictment, they posed no immediate military threat.
U.S. prosecutors allege that the action was planned in advance and carried out under orders from the highest levels of the Cuban government at the time. Charges include conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, destruction of civilian aircraft, and murder.
The case remained sealed for years, and its declassification reopens one of the most sensitive episodes in the history of the conflict between Washington and Havana.
U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne said the indictment seeks to advance accountability for the deaths of the four victims, whose families had demanded concrete legal action for decades.
The shootdown triggered a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Cuba and led to a hardening of U.S. policy toward the island, including the passage of the Helms-Burton Act, which strengthened the economic embargo.
So far, there has been no immediate official response from the Cuban government regarding the charges disclosed by U.S. authorities.
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