U.S. indicts Raul Castro over 1996 Cuban downing of two U.S. planes

Jose Basulto, founder of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, stands next to a plane in Miami in an August 2006 file photo. Photo by Roberto Schmidt /AFP

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The criminal indictment on Wednesday of Raul Castro, Cuba’s former president, springs from the downing three decades ago of two civilian U.S. planes by Cuban Air Force MiG fighters.

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Castro, the brother of longtime leader Fidel Castro, was defence minister when the two Cessnas belonging to a Cuban-American exile group were shot down by air-to-air missiles in international airspace.

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Four members of a Miami-based anti-Castro humanitarian group known as Brothers to the Rescue were killed, including three Americans. Their bodies were never found.

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According to a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the pilots of the Cessnas were not given any warning before being shot out of the sky by the air force jets.

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Relatives of the victims, U.S. lawmakers and members of the Cuban exile community in the United States have pushed for years for Castro to face charges.

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The 94-year-old Castro is charged in the indictment unsealed by a federal district court in Florida with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destroying aircraft.

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The charges come as U.S. President Donald Trump ramps up the pressure on Cuba’s communist leadership, even saying recently that the United States would be “taking over” the Caribbean island.

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Prior to the Feb. 24, 1996 incident, unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes would drop anti-Castro leaflets over Havana and help the U.S. Coast Guard locate Cubans who were fleeing the island for the Florida coast aboard makeshift rafts and boats.

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The group was founded in 1991 by Jose Basulto, a Cuban exile, licensed pilot and veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

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Basulto was flying a third plane on the day of the shootdown but was not targeted.

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Basulto, 85, told USA Today in a recent interview that he has been haunted for years by seeing his fellow Brothers to the Rescue members shot down.

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“I have navigated these years with a pain in my heart, seeing that a crime remained unpunished,” he told the newspaper.

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