Former Cuban Dictator Raúl Castro Indicted for 1996 Attack on Brothers to the Rescue Aircraft

Former Cuban Dictator Raúl Castro Indicted for 1996 Attack on Brothers to the Rescue Aircraft

The Department of Justice announced an indictment against former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro and five others for an attack on two planes, killing four people involved in rescue flights in 1996.

Those four men: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandra Jr, Mario de la Pena, and Pablo Morales.

February 24, 1996

In the 1990s, Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue), an organization based in Miami, flew unarmed planes to rescue or guide Cubans stranded or lost at sea as they fled the Communist regime, led by Fidel Castro at the time. The organization also supported anti-Castro movements on the island.

Unfortunately, Cuban spies infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and passed information back to the regime, including Castro, who served as head of the Cuban military.

With the information, in January 1996, Castro guided the military through “training missions during which Cuban MiG fighter jets located and followed planes with the flight speeds and at the altitudes as those planes used by” Brothers to the Rescue.

In February 1996, anti-Castro groups planned demonstrations on the island with Brothers to the Rescue supporting them “through flights to Cuba at the time of the demonstrations.”

The regime told spies not to fly with Brothers to the Rescue during February missions.

Tragedy struck on February 24, 1996, when Cuban MiGs shot down two of the three Brothers to the Rescue planes heading to Cuba over international waters.

The Cubans killed four nationals, including three American citizens.

The indictment alleges Castro, Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez, Jose Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raul Simanca Cardenas, Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez and Emilio Jose Palacio Blanco “did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire, confederate and agree with each other and with other persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to kill a national of the United States while such national was outside of the United States.”

“It was the object of the conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals by shooting down BTTR aircraft, using information provided by spies in Miami, to terrorize, intimidate and retaliate against the Cuban people and the Cuban exile conspiracy,” according to the indictment.

The Announcement

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche received a long standing ovation after he announced the DOJ has an indictment against Castro:

Today we are announcing an indictment charging Raul Castro and several others with conspiracy to kill US nationals.

[Long, loud applause]

Mr. Castro and the others are charged with additional crimes as well, including destruction of aircraft and four individual counts of murder.

The indictment was returned by a grand jury sitting in this district in Miami on April 23, 2026 and was unsealed today.

For nearly 30 years, 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice.

On February, this is a story all too familiar, on February 24 1996, two civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue were shot down over international waters by military aircraft from Cuba.

Four men were killed: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandra Jr, Mario de la Pena, and Pablo Morales.

They were unarmed civilians, and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida Straits, as alleged in the indictment.

Raul Castro and five co-defendants participated in a conspiracy that ended with Cuban military aircraft firing missiles at those civilian planes and killing four Americans. Those are the allegations returned by a federal grand jury.

My message today is clear. The United States and President Trump does not and will not forget its citizens.

🚨 "Today, we are announcing an indictment charging Raúl Castro, and several others, with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals," says @DAGToddBlanche in Miami.

"My message today is clear: the United States and @POTUS does not, and will not, forget its citizens." pic.twitter.com/gAlRAzbvUi

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 20, 2026

That is why Blanche and other officials made the announcement in Miami, home to Brothers to the Rescue and a large Cuban-American community:

There is a reason why myself and the senator and other leadership are here and not in Washington, DC, to announce this indictment.

The community here, you all understand the history of the Cuban regime better than anyone in America. Many families here know the cost of oppression. I’ve heard stories over the past week and past months. Every one of them heartbreaking. They know that the pain caused by the regime did not stop at the island’s shores, and today’s indictment, while it does not bring back the murdered victims, it makes a statement: the United States government has not forgotten these innocent men who were shot out of the sky, and, as in every criminal case, the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury of their peers.

But today, the Department of Justice has taken an important step and brought this indictment.

.@DAGToddBlanche in Miami: There’s a reason why we are here, and not in Washington, D.C., to announce this indictment. The community here understands the history of the Cuban regime better than anyone in America. https://t.co/RanXT9Cbuk pic.twitter.com/L2TYiEVb63

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 20, 2026

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