Florida set to file state charges against Raúl Castro on Brothers to the Rescue shootdown
By Zoey Thomas
October 19, 2026 at 2:09 PM EDT
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is filing state charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, he announced in a press briefing with federal state and local officials in Miami on Monday.
Three days prior, the chief judge on the 11th Judicial Circuit Court signed an arrest warrant for Castro. The state found probable cause that Castro in 1996 conspired with spies within the state to to commit first-degree murder in the shooting down of two civilian planes flown by a humanitarian group.
Uthmeier's announcement, however, was criticized as political theater by his opponents, who point out it is likely to have very little practical effect — and that its timing comes on the same day that early voting begins in Miami-Dade County. The incumbent attorney general held just a two-point edge over his Democratic opponent in an October poll from Florida Politics.
READ MORE: Thirty years after deadly plane shoot-down, Raúl Castro indicted by the U.S.
The charges come three decades after the Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Deforce destroyed two planes operated by the Brothers to the Rescue humanitarian group. Four men were killed.
Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales were flying near the north coast of Cuba when their plane was shot down. Cuban authorities have long maintained that the aircrafts entered Cuban airspace. The International Civil Aviation Organization investigated in 1996 and concluded they were over international waters.
Castro was Cuba's defense minister at the time and is accused of orchestrating the shooting.
Monday’s briefing took place in the C.A.M.P. 4 Justice Courtroom, at Miami's Florida International University, which was named for the four men using the initials of the four men killed: Costa, Alejandre, Morales and de la Peña.
Florida Rep. Alex Rizzo, whose jurisdiction stretches from Hialeah to Little Havana, grew emotional on Monday while speaking about his conversations with the mother of Carlos Costa.
“I stood in [Costa’s] room, and it was exactly the way he left it on that fateful morning when he took off to save people,” he said, tears filling his eyes. “And it was very difficult when she would ask, ‘Why hasn’t anything been done?’ Well, today, something’s been done.”
The federal government has already charged Castro, who was serving as minister of defense at the time, for the same incident. In May, the U.S. Justice Department announced a federal grand jury, led by Jason A. Reding Quiñones, had charged him with murder and conspiracy to kill.
FILE - Brothers to the Rescue pilot Ivan Domaniewicz, left, and co-pilot Carlos Costa fly over the Straits of Florida looking for people who might have been on makeshift rafts fleeing Cuba in August 31, 1993. (File) (1988x1325, AR: 1.500377358490566)
Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, is a Miami native and son of a Cuban political refugee. He stood alongside Uthmeier on Monday.
The federal and state investigations are separate, Quiñones said. But the two administrations cooperated to make them happen. The federal investigation provided the foundation Uthmeier’s team used to take action under Florida law, he said.
Criticism on timing, effects
Yet critics are questioning the practical effects of the charges — just as they did when the federal government announced its own warrant five months ago.
The state has not announced any plans to travel to Cuba and capture Castro, who is 95 and whose health sparked rumors of his death just last month.
José Javier Rodríguez, Uthmeier's opponent in the upcoming attorney general election, stood outside the university before the briefing to call the event a political stunt. He questioned why the office waited until Monday — the first day of early voting in the county — to make the announcement, if the warrant was signed Friday.
Uthmeier shrugged off these criticisms. He pointed out Castro would be brought to the U.S. if he attempted to travel to another country, including for medical services. The charges further ensure Castro can’t be pardoned by future U.S. presidents, who can only pardon federal charges, not state ones.
The attorney general also said the investigation could lead to others being indicted for their roles in the conspiracy.
“Raul Castro is an older man who’s probably not looking to march himself into Miami. I think others would get him before the court of law would,” Uthmeier said. “But at the end of the day, we stand ready to prosecute the case.”
The affidavit submitted Friday, obtained by the Miami Herald, claimed Florida had the jurisdiction to charge Castro because two Cuban spies in Miami and Key West “infiltrated” Brothers to the Rescue in order to orchestrate the shootdown.
These spies allegedly reported on the naval airbase in Key West and transmitted flight data back to Cuba. The spy network told the moles not to fly with the humanitarian group between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27. Cuban forces shot down the planes Feb. 24.
Americans for decades have called for those involved to be investigated and imprisoned. Until this year, the closest the country came was a 2003 federal indictment of a Cuban general and two fighter pilots.
Marcell Felipe, a Cuban American attorney and chairman of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, said Monday it took the right people in power to bring the charges to fruition after 30 years.
“I don’t really think of them as victims, I think of them as heroes," he said of the four men killed. “They weren’t randomly shot down and killed. They knew what they were doing was a dangerous mission.”
Three days prior, the chief judge on the 11th Judicial Circuit Court signed an arrest warrant for Castro. The state found probable cause that Castro in 1996 conspired with spies within the state to to commit first-degree murder in the shooting down of two civilian planes flown by a humanitarian group.
Uthmeier's announcement, however, was criticized as political theater by his opponents, who point out it is likely to have very little practical effect — and that its timing comes on the same day that early voting begins in Miami-Dade County. The incumbent attorney general held just a two-point edge over his Democratic opponent in an October poll from Florida Politics.
READ MORE: Thirty years after deadly plane shoot-down, Raúl Castro indicted by the U.S.
The charges come three decades after the Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Deforce destroyed two planes operated by the Brothers to the Rescue humanitarian group. Four men were killed.
Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales were flying near the north coast of Cuba when their plane was shot down. Cuban authorities have long maintained that the aircrafts entered Cuban airspace. The International Civil Aviation Organization investigated in 1996 and concluded they were over international waters.
Castro was Cuba's defense minister at the time and is accused of orchestrating the shooting.
Monday’s briefing took place in the C.A.M.P. 4 Justice Courtroom, at Miami's Florida International University, which was named for the four men using the initials of the four men killed: Costa, Alejandre, Morales and de la Peña.
Florida Rep. Alex Rizzo, whose jurisdiction stretches from Hialeah to Little Havana, grew emotional on Monday while speaking about his conversations with the mother of Carlos Costa.
“I stood in [Costa’s] room, and it was exactly the way he left it on that fateful morning when he took off to save people,” he said, tears filling his eyes. “And it was very difficult when she would ask, ‘Why hasn’t anything been done?’ Well, today, something’s been done.”
The federal government has already charged Castro, who was serving as minister of defense at the time, for the same incident. In May, the U.S. Justice Department announced a federal grand jury, led by Jason A. Reding Quiñones, had charged him with murder and conspiracy to kill.
FILE - Brothers to the Rescue pilot Ivan Domaniewicz, left, and co-pilot Carlos Costa fly over the Straits of Florida looking for people who might have been on makeshift rafts fleeing Cuba in August 31, 1993. (File) (1988x1325, AR: 1.500377358490566)
Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, is a Miami native and son of a Cuban political refugee. He stood alongside Uthmeier on Monday.
The federal and state investigations are separate, Quiñones said. But the two administrations cooperated to make them happen. The federal investigation provided the foundation Uthmeier’s team used to take action under Florida law, he said.
Criticism on timing, effects
Yet critics are questioning the practical effects of the charges — just as they did when the federal government announced its own warrant five months ago.
The state has not announced any plans to travel to Cuba and capture Castro, who is 95 and whose health sparked rumors of his death just last month.
José Javier Rodríguez, Uthmeier's opponent in the upcoming attorney general election, stood outside the university before the briefing to call the event a political stunt. He questioned why the office waited until Monday — the first day of early voting in the county — to make the announcement, if the warrant was signed Friday.
Uthmeier shrugged off these criticisms. He pointed out Castro would be brought to the U.S. if he attempted to travel to another country, including for medical services. The charges further ensure Castro can’t be pardoned by future U.S. presidents, who can only pardon federal charges, not state ones.
The attorney general also said the investigation could lead to others being indicted for their roles in the conspiracy.
“Raul Castro is an older man who’s probably not looking to march himself into Miami. I think others would get him before the court of law would,” Uthmeier said. “But at the end of the day, we stand ready to prosecute the case.”
The affidavit submitted Friday, obtained by the Miami Herald, claimed Florida had the jurisdiction to charge Castro because two Cuban spies in Miami and Key West “infiltrated” Brothers to the Rescue in order to orchestrate the shootdown.
These spies allegedly reported on the naval airbase in Key West and transmitted flight data back to Cuba. The spy network told the moles not to fly with the humanitarian group between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27. Cuban forces shot down the planes Feb. 24.
Americans for decades have called for those involved to be investigated and imprisoned. Until this year, the closest the country came was a 2003 federal indictment of a Cuban general and two fighter pilots.
Marcell Felipe, a Cuban American attorney and chairman of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, said Monday it took the right people in power to bring the charges to fruition after 30 years.
“I don’t really think of them as victims, I think of them as heroes," he said of the four men killed. “They weren’t randomly shot down and killed. They knew what they were doing was a dangerous mission.”