DOJ indicts Cuba’s Raul Castro on murder, conspiracy charges
by Stephen Dinan · The Washington TimesRaul Castro, who spent years at the pinnacle of Cuba’s government alongside his late brother Fidel, has been indicted in U.S. federal court on charges of murder and conspiracy to kill Americans stemming from the 1996 attack on airplanes trying to deliver aid to Cuban refugees.
Mr. Castro, 94, was first vice president and minister of defense at the time of the shootdown, which the U.S. said happened in international waters. The attack killed U.S. citizens who were part of Brothers to the Rescue, a group of Cuban exiles that flew pro-democracy propaganda missions to the island.
Mr. Castro was captured on audio claiming personal responsibility for the order to bring down the planes.
“For nearly 30 years, 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in announcing the indictment during a ceremony Wednesday in Miami commemorating Cuba’s independence from Spain in 1902. “Nations and their leaders cannot be permitted to target Americans, kill them, and not face accountability.”
The indictment, handed up last month by a grand jury in Miami and kept secret until now, is the latest in a string of efforts by the Trump administration to pressure Cuba into a more cooperative relationship with the U.S.
The two nations are separated by 90 miles of water and an even larger gulf of ideology since the Castro brothers’ takeover in 1959.
It was those waters that Brothers to the Rescue flew over in Cessna 337 Skymasters. Their missions included guiding or aiding Cubans attempting the dangerous crossing, and dropping pro-democracy leaflets on the island itself.
Buzzing the island drew protests from Cuba and sparked fear of international incidents among U.S. officials, but Brothers to the Rescue continued its operations.
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On Feb. 24, 1996, three Cessnas flew toward the island. Warned by Cuban spies, the Castro regime scrambled MiG fighters to hunt and destroy the planes.
The jets fired air-to-air missiles, downing first one plane and then, seven minutes later, a second plane, all over international waters, according to the Justice Department.
Cuban launched other MiGs to go after the third plane, but it managed to escape.
Cuba had repeatedly complained about intrusions into its airspace, though it didn’t deliver any warnings to the unarmed Cessnas that day, and the planes were headed away from Cuba at the time they were shot down, the indictment said.
Killed were Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Pena and Pablo Morales.
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Along with Mr. Castro, the indictment also charges five MiG pilots with the conspiracy: Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez, Emilio Jose Palacio Blanco, Jose Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raul Simanca Cardenas and Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez.
All of them are accused of the conspiracy charge.
Mr. Castro and Mr. Perez-Perez, who the U.S. says were in the MiG that downed the two Cessnas, face two counts of destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel denounced the charges on social media, saying they were an excuse fabricated by President Trump to justify an invasion of the island.
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“The purported accusation against Army General Raul Castro Ruz, just announced by the U.S. government, only reveals the arrogance and frustration that the representatives of the empire feel toward the unyielding resolve of the Cuban Revolution and the unity and moral strength of its leadership,” he said in comments translated from Spanish.
He called Brothers to the Rescue a “narco-terrorist organization” and insisted the planes were downed in “legitimate self-defense” accordance with international law.
Mr. Diaz-Canal said that was more than could be said of Mr. Trump’s campaign to strike at suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
Mr. Trump has upended decades of stalemate between the U.S. and Cuba, offering promises of assistance to the island nation if it cooperates, and delivering threats of punishment if it does not.
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“Look, the place is falling apart. It’s a mess,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday.
But he said the indictment doesn’t necessarily mean an escalation in tensions with America’s neighbor.
“I don’t think there needs to be,” he said.
Mr. Blanche said the charges are the first time in nearly 70 years of hostile relations that senior Cuban officials have been charged with crimes in the U.S. He said he couldn’t explain why previous administrations didn’t bring the charges.
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The acting attorney general said a warrant has been issued for Mr. Castro’s arrest, and he will come to the U.S. to stand trial “by his own will or another way.”
The fate of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, an ally of the Cuban regime, hangs over the new indictment.
The U.S. military carried out a lightning mission in January, seizing Mr. Maduro from Caracas and bringing him to the U.S. to face a criminal indictment on drug-dealing and weapons charges.
Mr. Perez-Perez and his brother, Francisco Perez-Perez, who was in the plane with him, and Ruben Martinez Puente, then chief of Cuba’s air force, were previously charged with murder in 2003.
Wednesday’s indictment supersedes that earlier one, and drops Martinez, who died in 2021, and Francisco Perez-Perez.
Gerardo Hernandez was convicted in 2001 of spying for Cuba, including being part of the network that reported on Brothers to the Rescue. President Obama sent him to Cuba in a prisoner exchange in 2014.
Only one of the defendants in the new indictment is in U.S. custody.
Mr. Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez managed to reach the U.S. during the last administration. He was admitted under one of President Biden’s “parole” programs for unauthorized migrants.
He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of making false statements on an immigration document. In his plea agreement he admitted he had served in the Cuban air force, where he flew MiG fighters — and concealed that information from the State and Homeland Security departments.
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