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WorldAmericas

Florida charges Raúl Castro with murder conspiracy over 1996 plane shootdown

Attorney General James Uthmeier secured a state arrest warrant for the 95-year-old former Cuban leader, accusing him of ordering the downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that killed four men.

From the editorial desk · MiamiPublished
Former Cuban leader Raúl Castro (file photo)
Former Cuban leader Raúl Castro (file photo)Photos: This image is taken from the Presidency of the Nation of Argentina web site, in accordance with the copyright licensing. / Wikimedia Commons; Office of the Attorney General, State of Florida / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, Public domain

Key points

  1. Florida has charged Raúl Castro, 95, with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
  2. The case concerns the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes that killed four men from a Miami group.
  3. Castro already faces separate federal charges, filed in May, over the same attack.

Florida has charged Raúl Castro, the 95-year-old former leader of Cuba, with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and secured a state warrant for his arrest over the shooting down of two civilian planes three decades ago.

Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the charge at Florida International University in Miami on Monday. He said the evidence shows Castro ordered the Cuban military in 1996 to shoot down two planes that had taken off from South Florida, killing four men. They belonged to Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based group that flew over the sea searching for Cuban migrants.

“The people of Miami have waited too long,” Uthmeier said. “Well, today the wait is over.”

He acknowledged the warrant is unlikely to be served soon, though Castro could be extradited to Florida if he travels to certain countries. “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. “We’ll be ready to bring the case however needed.”

Castro was indicted by federal prosecutors in May over the same attack. Jason Reding Quiñones, the US Attorney appointed by President Donald Trump, said that under the principle of dual sovereignty the state and federal governments can each prosecute breaches of their own laws. “That means two separate prosecutions, each standing on their own,” he said.

The announcement came on the first day of early voting in Miami-Dade County. José Javier Rodríguez, the Democrat challenging Uthmeier for attorney general, called it a “political distraction” and a “smokescreen”. “If we can arrest the murderous Raúl Castro from Tallahassee, I will be the first to do it as Attorney General,” he wrote.

Cuba’s government has not commented.