Raúl Castro indictment Who were Brothers to the Rescue What happened in 1996 politifact com article 2026 may 20 raul-castro-cuba-indictment-plane-shootdown-florid Maria Briceño Samantha Putterman Sen Ashley Moody R-Fla speaks after federal prosecutors announced charges against former Cuban President Raul Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles May 20 2026 in Miami AP U S officials announced federal charges May 20 against former Cuban President Raúl Castro for the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes that killed four people including three Americans Officials made the announcement on Cuban Independence Day at Freedom Tower a downtown Miami skyscraper known for processing thousands of Cuban refugees in the 1960s and ’70s Acting U S Attorney General Todd Blanche Sen Ashley Moody R-Fla Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and other officials said the charges were the result of decades of investigative work and intelligence gathering   1 7 President Trump is committed to restoring a very simple but important principle Blanche said at the news conference If you kill Americans we will pursue you no matter who you are no matter what title you hold and in this case no matter how much time has passed The United States government has not forgotten these innocent men who were shot out of the sky Raúl Castro now 94 led Cuba after his older brother Fidel Castro stepped down in 2008 The charges against him and five others include destroying an airplane and murder with some crimes carrying possible death sentences or life in prison The charges come at a pivotal time between the U S and Cuba which have had a strained and often contentious relationship since the Cuban revolution in 1959    Since the U S government captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January it has blocked oil shipments from Venezuela Cuba’s main petroleum supplier and threatened other countries with tariffs if they sell oil to the island   Cuba has spiraled into a worsening humanitarian crisis driven by systemic mismanagement in the country and intensified by the U S oil blockade with electrical grid failure hospitals canceling surgeries and schools and businesses closing The Cuban government announced May 13 that the country had run out of oil and diesel Some say the indictment may be an opening for the U S to use the military to extract Castro to face charges as it did with Maduro President Donald Trump has warned for months about the possibility of taking Cuba or of freeing it A friendlier government in Havana could help secure shipping lanes that carry large amounts of U S trade but experts widely agree the U S would likely see only modest economic benefits from Cuba’s government changing   Some argue that adding more pressure to the regime could end up backfiring The biggest direct impact from an intensifying humanitarian crisis experts said would be instability or state collapse leading to mass emigration That would run counter to the Trump administration’s high-priority effort to curb illegal immigration and would most directly burden Florida Trump’s home state   What happened in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue mission On Feb 24 1996 three civilian planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue a Miami-based Cuban exile humanitarian organization took off from a Miami-area airport   2 7 A Cuban fighter jet shot down two of them Brothers to the Rescue founded in 1991 searched the Florida Straits for Cubans fleeing the communist regime on rafts alerting the U S Coast Guard and helping survivors By the mid 1990s after the U S government began intercepting rafters and sending them back the group shifted its focus to nonviolent civil disobedience against the Cuban government sometimes dropping anti-regime leaflets over Havana The attack on the planes killed four people Carlos Alberto Costa Armando Alejandre Jr Mario Manuel de la Peña and Pablo Morales Three were American citizens and the fourth Morales was a permanent resident   The missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed the two unarmed Cessna planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace What does the indictment against Raúl Castro say   The Justice Department’s indictment against Castro and five other people charged them with four counts of murder one count of conspiracy to kill U S nationals and two counts of aircraft destruction Castro was Cuba's defense minister at the time The indictment says Castro authorized the use of deadly force against Brothers to the Rescue in January 1996 one month before the attack after the group dropped leaflets on the Cuban mainland that contained the United Nations’ Universal Declarations of Human Rights The Cuban government denounced the indictment in a May 20 X post saying the group repeatedly violated Cuban airspace and ignored public warnings Was the 1996 shootdown an ‘unprovoked attack ’ as an FBI official said FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia in the news conference described the 30-year-old incident as an unprovoked attack on American lives Legal experts said calling the attack unprovoked depends on the definition used   The Cuban government alerted U S officials about the flights warning they would defend their airspace Federal Aviation Administration officials opened an investigation and met with José Basulto the Cuban American founder of Brothers to the Rescue urging him to stop 3 7 taunting Cuba and ground the flights according to declassified government records obtained by George Washington University’s National Security Archive After another flight in January 1996 the documents show one FAA official wrote in a memo to her superiors that this latest overflight can only be seen as further taunting of the Cuban Government…worst case scenario is that one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes   Clark Neily Cato Institute senior vice president for legal studies told PolitiFact that Cuban officials felt at least some of these flights were incursions into Cuban territory Sebastián Arcos interim director of Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute said that although there were threats from Cuba and warnings from the Clinton administration the group was still conducting a legal flight over international waters The Cuban regime did not as per standard international civilian aviation rules warn the planes that they were in violation of any rules and did not attempt to force the planes to land Arcos said How likely is it that Castro will surrender Blanche the acting U S attorney general told reporters the U S government indicts people out of the country all the time and said there are different ways to get people facing charges to the U S   The reason why we indict somebody is because we want them here to face justice in front of a jury of their peers Blanche said How we go about doing that obviously depends on the circumstances in the case and I'm not going to go beyond that … but there was a warrant issued for his arrest so we expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way Experts said there’s a low probability of Castro surrendering to U S authorities on his own   No way will Raul Castro ‘turn himself in ’ said Richard Feinberg University of California-San Diego professor of international political economics    Neily said even if surrender is unlikely there could be private conversations happening between the U S government and Cuba It's entirely possible there was some discussion of this situation and perhaps certain representations or promises were made he said I don't know what those would be but 4 7 perhaps some sort of clemency if Raúl Castro were to present himself to a U S court voluntarily   Other experts predicted the U S will use the indictment to initiate military action against Cuba The Trump administration may cite the indictment as grounds to conduct a military operation in Cuba similar to the extraction of former President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela said Jorge Duany former director of Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute However various spokespersons for the U S government have denied any immediate plans to invade or strike Cuba until now On May 20 U S Southern Command announced that the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group entered the Caribbean The group includes an aircraft carrier carrier air wing and at least one guidedmissile destroyer CNN reported RELATED Trump has threatened ‘taking Cuba ’ What’s at stake for the US economically politically RELATED Fact-checking Donald Trump following U S attacks on Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter U S Southern Command’s X post May 20 2026 Cuban Embassy in U S ’s X post May 20 2026 CiberCuba Noticias’ Facebook post May 13 2026   U S Department of Justice United States Unseals Superseding Indictment Charging Raul Castro and Five Castro Regime Co-Defendants for 1996 Shoot-Down of Brothers to the Rescue Aircraft May 20 2026   U S Department of Justice Superseding indictment filed April 23 2026   NBC 6 Live updates Raúl Castro charged with murder in Brothers to the Rescue shootdown May 20 2026   The Associated Press US announces charges against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro in 1996 aircraft shootdown May 20 2026  5 7 NCB 6 U S -Cuba tensions grow as Trump weighs talks and new sanctions May 19 2026 Politico Yes Trump Might Really Attack Cuba May 18 2026 PolitiFact Fact-checking Donald Trump following U S attacks on Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro Jan 3 2026 PolitiFact Trump has threatened ‘taking Cuba ’ What’s at stake for the US economically politically March 25 2026 CNN US indicts former Cuban President Raúl Castro May 20 2026  CBS The story of Cuba's 1996 shootdown that could lead to Raúl Castro's indictment May 19 2026 PBS News WATCH LIVE U S expected to announce indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro May 20 2026 National Security Archive Cuba Declassified Records on the Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown May 19 2026  Merriam-Webster unprovoked accessed May 20 2026  House gov SHOOT-DOWN OF THE BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE PLANES HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 15 1999 C-SPAN Jose Basulto Cuban Exile and Bay of Pigs Veteran Nov 21 2010 Google Bay of Pigs Invasion accessed May 20 2026 WBUR Why Trump wants to ‘take’ Cuba March 19 2026 The White House Presidential Message on Cuban Independence Day May 20 2026   Factbase  Interview Hugh Hewitt Interviews Donald Trump on His Radio and Podcast Show May 4 2026 May 4 2026 Email interview with Jorge Duany former director of Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute May 20 2026 Email interview with Sebastián Arcos interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University May 20 2026 6 7 Email interview with Richard Feinberg professor of international political economy at the University of California-San Diego May 20 2026 Phone interview with Clark Neily senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute May 20 2026 7 7