Politics
Florida files murder-conspiracy charge over 1996 deaths of four Miami-based pilots
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accused former Cuban leader Raúl Castro of authorizing the 1996 attack that killed four people aboard two civilian planes. Castro is unlikely to appear in a U.S. court soon, Uthmeier acknowledged, while Cuba’s president rejected the case as politically motivated.
Florida has brought a state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder against former Cuban President Raúl Castro over the 1996 destruction of two civilian planes and the deaths of their four occupants.
Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the charge Monday, alleging that Castro directed Cuban intelligence agents to infiltrate the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue and approved the attack. The allegations are laid out in a state complaint and follow a federal indictment announced in May that charged Castro with murder and destruction of an aircraft.
The planes went down on Feb. 24, 1996, after three unarmed Cessnas departed Opa-locka Airport in Miami-Dade County. According to the complaint, Cuban MiG fighter jets fired air-to-air missiles at two of the planes well outside Cuba’s territorial waters. The aircraft were flying away from Cuba and received no warning, U.S. officials said. Four people were killed.
The complaint alleges that Cuban intelligence agents in the Miami area and Florida Keys infiltrated the exile organization and relayed flight plans. Castro, now 95, was Cuba’s minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and first vice president at the time, and investigators allege he gave final authorization for the attack.
It is uncertain whether Castro will ever face a U.S. judge. Uthmeier said the arrest warrant could limit Castro’s ability to travel to countries with extradition agreements with the United States. “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. “I think others would get him before the court of law would, but at the end of the day, we stand ready to prosecute the case.”
Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said the federal indictment “laid the groundwork” for Florida’s case.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the state action, calling it a politically driven maneuver with no legal or practical basis. Castro succeeded his brother Fidel as president in 2006 and transferred the office to Díaz-Canel in 2018. He retired as head of the Cuban Communist Party in 2021 but is widely believed to retain influence behind the scenes.
The case puts renewed focus on a decades-old tragedy with direct ties to South Florida’s Cuban exile community. Any prosecution would also face major practical obstacles: Castro remains in Cuba, and the state attorney general acknowledged that bringing him to a Florida courtroom is far from certain.