Florida Targets Raul Castro Over 4 Deaths in 1996 Plane Shootdown
“Raul Castro ordered the premeditated, state-sanctioned murder of four Floridians in cold blood,” Uthmeier said in a post on US social media company X.
The warrant accuses Castro of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the Feb. 24, 1996, attack on planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group.
Uthmeier pledged that Florida would keep pressing for accountability on behalf of the four victims: Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Pena and Armando Alejandre Jr.
The Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution and investigators obtained the warrant after authorities reopened the case last year at Uthmeier’s direction, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
On that day in 1996, Cuban fighter jets downed two of the group’s three unarmed Cessna aircraft over international waters, killing everyone aboard. The planes had taken off from Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade County and were heading away from Cuba, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit Court signed the warrant and ordered that Castro be held without bond.
The state action comes after a federal indictment against Castro over the same incident, announced in May. The federal charges include conspiracy to kill US nationals and destruction of aircraft.
The shootdown remains a flashpoint between Washington and Havana. Cuba has maintained that the planes violated its airspace, while US authorities say they were over international waters.
Castro, 95, was Cuba’s president from 2008 to 2018, succeeding his brother Fidel Castro.
Florida authorities said their investigation will continue as they work to hold those responsible for the deaths to account.
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