Florida Attorney General Files Additional Murder Charges Against Former Cuban Leader Raúl Castro
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Florida officials have filed a state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder against 95-year-old Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of civilian aircraft operated by exiles, building on a federal indictment announced earlier this year.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday that a state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder has been filed against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, 95, alleging he directed intelligence agents to infiltrate the exile group Brothers to the Rescue and ordered the attack on their planes in 1996. The charge expands on a federal indictment from May that included murder and aircraft-destruction counts.
Uthmeier said the arrest warrant will limit Castro’s ability to travel outside Cuba and to any jurisdiction with a U.S. extradition treaty. > "I’m not ignorant of the fact that Raúl Castro is an older man who’s probably not looking to march himself into Miami," he said, adding that authorities are prepared to prosecute the case.
According to the state complaint, Castro was then Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and First Vice President of Cuba when he authorized the final order to shoot down the planes. Cuban intelligence agents, operating as part of the Wasp Network, allegedly infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and reported flight plans.
On February 24, 1996, three unarmed Cessna aircraft departed Miami’s Opa-Locka Airport. Cuban MiGs later destroyed two of the planes with air-to-air missiles, killing four occupants, the complaint said. U.S. officials noted the aircraft were outside Cuban territorial waters and received no warning from Havana air traffic control.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the federal indictment as a political stunt aimed at justifying what he called “the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones said the federal indictment laid the groundwork for the new state charges.
Castro succeeded his brother Fidel as president in 2006 and handed power to Díaz-Canel in 2018. He retired from the Communist Party leadership in 2021 but is believed to retain influence, highlighted by the political prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned of possible military action against Cuba following recent U.S. operations in Venezuela.