The U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges against Raúl Castro, former president of Cuba, for his involvement in the shooting down of two refugee organization planes in 1996 that resulted in American fatalities.
On Wednesday, 20 May 2026 GMT+7, the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro related to the 1996 incident when two civilian planes belonging to a Cuban-American refugee organization were shot down, causing the deaths of four Cuban and American individuals.
Todd Blanch, acting U.S. Attorney General, stated that 94-year-old Castro, brother of the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, is charged with conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens, murder, and destruction of aircraft.
Other defendants are also named in the indictment, which was approved by a grand jury on 23 April.
The announcement was made during a press conference outside Freedom Tower in Miami, a symbolic site for Cuban Americans who fled the communist country.
At the press briefing, officials paid tribute to the four Cuban Americans who died—three U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident—aboard the civilian planes shot down by the Cuban Air Force on 24 February 1996, when Castro was serving as Cuba's Minister of Defense.
The civilian planes belonged to the group "Brothers to the Rescue," founded in 1991 by José Basulto, a Cuban-American pilot, along with other Cuban refugees. The organization conducted rescue missions for Cubans fleeing on makeshift rafts between Cuba and Florida.
However, during one such mission, two of the group's planes were shot down by Cuban MiG-29 fighter jets over international airspace. Cuba repeatedly claimed the planes had violated its airspace.
Reports from the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concur that the four victims died as a direct result of actions by Cuban state agents in international airspace, and that Cuba failed to follow standard interception protocols.
At the time, the U.S. government under President Bill Clinton and Congress strongly condemned Cuba's actions, leading to sanctions and other measures, including prosecuting a man accused of providing Cuba with intelligence on Brothers to the Rescue missions.
Though 30 years have passed, the incident remains one of the most contentious political issues in modern U.S.-Cuba relations. Cuban-American lawmakers, refugee activists, and victims’ families have long demanded legal action against Castro in the United States.
In Cuba, Raúl Castro remains highly influential despite stepping down as president in 2018 and as Communist Party secretary in 2021.
Prior to Wednesday's indictment announcement, Cuban authorities held nationwide celebrations marking Castro’s upcoming 95th birthday on 3 June.
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Source:nbcnews