South Florida Republican lawmakers penned a letter to the Trump administration asking that the U.S. Justice Department reopen its criminal investigation into former Cuba Defense Minister Raúl Castro’s role in the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft flying in international air space.
All four men aboard were killed by two Cuban jet fighters who attacked them over the Florida straits. The four killed: Armando Alejandre, Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Pena, and Pablo Morales.
Feb. 24 marks 30 years since the shootdown that sparked international condemnation of the Cuban government.
At the time, Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue had been carrying out humanitarian missions to search for migrant rafters trying to flee Cuba. The Cuban government claimed the Brothers to the Rescue planes were flying over Cuban airspace.
The late Cuban President Fidel Castro admitted he had ordered his military to shoot down any planes violating his country's airspace only weeks before Cuban jet fighters downed the two Brothers to the Rescue airplanes.
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In the Feb. 13 letter to President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the lawmakers want federal law enforcement authorities “to review previously compiled evidence, take a fresh look at command responsibility at the highest levels of the Cuban regime, and use every available legal tool to hold accountable those responsible for the killing[s].”
Signing the letter were U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, U.S Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, and U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, R-Miami, along with GOP New York Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis.
“For decades, Raúl Castro and the regime officials who ordered this vile attack have hidden behind the protection of a brutal dictatorship, escaping justice while the families of the victims were left to carry the pain alone. Now we have a real chance to correct this historic injustice," Salazar said in a statement.
“This was a regime-sponsored military operation approved at the highest levels,” she said. “The evidence is clear, the responsibility is undeniable, and the era of impunity must end.”
“Raul Castro has been at the center of the Cuban regime’s crimes for nearly seven decades,” said Diaz-Balart in a statement. “February 24 will mark thirty years since the heinous shootdown of two unarmed civilian aircraft in international waters by the Cuban military, under the command of then-Defense Minister Raul Castro.”
Said Giménez: “For nearly three decades, the Castro regime has evaded justice for the cold-blooded murder of Americans in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, shot out of the sky while carrying out a humanitarian mission.”
“The evidence is overwhelming, the chain of command is clear, and responsibility leads directly to Raúl Castro,” Giménez added.
The International Civil Aviation Organization investigated the incident in 1996 and concluded that the two unarmed planes were shot down over international waters.
Three years later, federal prosecutors in Miami connected a South Florida-based Cuban spy ring to the shootdown, alleging that the spies acted on orders from top Cuban government officials to take down the two planes.
In 2003, a Cuban general and two fighter pilots were indicted for their role in the incident over the Florida straits. Gen. Ruben Martinez Puente, who was then head of the Cuban air force, and pilots Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez and Francisco Perez-Perez were named in the indictment. The charges included murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and destruction of aircraft.
