Cuba's Raúl Castro indicted over 1996 fatal downing of two aircraft

7 hours ago 2

Miami prosecutors have prepared an indictment against former Cuban president Raúl Castro over the 1996 downing of two NGO planes that killed four people onboard.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

The U.S. Government has indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro on charges including murder in connection with the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft that killed four people, three of them U.S. citizens. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche made the announcement in Miami.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TODD BLANCHE: Today, we are announcing an indictment charging Raúl Castro and several others with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals.

(CHEERING)

DETROW: NPR's Eyder Peralta is in Miami and joins us now. Hey, Eyder.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey there, Scott.

DETROW: Tell us more about these charges. Why exactly is Raúl Castro being charged?

PERALTA: So these charges go back to 1996, and it has to do with this group from Miami called Brothers to the Rescue. They used to fly small Cessnas over the Strait of Florida to alert Coast Guards of Cuban migrants out at sea. But on February 24, 1996, Cuban MiGs shot two of them out of the sky. The U.S. says the Cuban government, directed by Raúl Castro, who was the defense minister at the time, planned for this. They say the Cubans spied on the group in Miami, that they trained to shoot down the planes. And in the end, U.S. officials say they killed four humanitarians.

Of course, it's more complicated than that. The indictment itself acknowledges that in previous flights, the Cessnas had crossed into Cuban airspace, and they had dropped antigovernment pamphlets on the island. Indeed, we know from U.S. documents that the State Department pressed the FAA to stop Brothers to the Rescue from flying because they feared that something like this would happen, a shoot-down would happen. But here in Miami, there was none of that nuance. The indictment was received with elation.

DETROW: Yeah. I mean, you don't usually hear applause and cheering in the background...

PERALTA: Yeah.

DETROW: ...When an indictment is announced. Tell us more about who was in that room and what they said.

PERALTA: I mean, so the press conference was held here at the Freedom Tower. I'm outside of it right now. And this is the Ellis Island for Cuban Americans. It's where many migrants were processed as they came to Miami fleeing Cuba. And there were politicians and big figures from the Cuban exile community here, but also the family of those who died that day. I met Marlene Alejandre, who said - her dad was killed in one of those planes, and she says they've spent decades waiting for this day. He was a U.S. citizen, she said, and a Vietnam veteran, and she hopes that he gets the justice he deserves.

I also spoke to Sylvia Iriondo, who was on a third plane that day that wasn't shot down. And she said she was full of hope that justice would be served, that change would come to Cuba. I asked her if he actually - if she actually expected Raúl Castro, who is now 94, to appear in an American court.

SYLVIA IRIONDO: If he dies before facing justice, he would have been indicted for a crime that he committed. And he should be held responsible for it.

DETROW: I mean, Eyder, this is happening in the middle of increased tensions between the U.S. and Cuba. President Trump has shown a real eagerness to intervene in other countries. He has threatened military actions. There have also been negotiations between the two countries. So how does the indictment fit into all of that?

PERALTA: I think everyone's thinking the same thing. They're looking at Venezuela, where the United States had indicted now former President Nicolás Maduro of drug trafficking. And this January, American soldiers swooped into Caracas and they brought him to a jail in Brooklyn. I spoke to Michael Bustamante, who studies Cuba at the University of Miami, and he says, clearly, the U.S. has been ratcheting up pressure on the Cubans. The U.S. has enacted a de facto oil blockade. They've announced new sanctions on basically the whole Cuban leadership. And Bustamante says the thing the Trump administration was missing was a pretext for some kind of military action. And this might be exactly that.

DETROW: What is Cuba's government saying about this?

PERALTA: President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the U.S. lies and distorts the events. But I think, clearly, this is one more way the Trump is - the Trump administration is mounting pressure on the Cuban regime. And the question is, will the Cuban government capitulate? I think if you look at the rhetoric coming out of Havana this past week, I would say their position is actually hardening.

DETROW: That is NPR's Eyder Peralta joining us from a pretty busy street in Miami. Eyder, thank you so much.

PERALTA: Thank you, Scott.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Read Entire Article