Foreign Policy

Justice Department Indicts Cuba's Raúl Castro for 1996 Shootdown That Killed 4 Americans

Nearly 30 years after Cuban fighter jets destroyed two civilian aircraft over international waters, the former Cuban dictator faces federal murder charges.

César Báez | 5.20.2026 5:03 PM

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Cuban President Raul Castro is seen in July, 2003. (IMAGO/Jorge Rey/MediaPunch/IMAGO/MediaPunch/Newscom)

Raúl Castro, Cuba's 94-year-old former dictator, was indicted Wednesday for his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based humanitarian group founded by Cuban exiles.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in South Florida on April 23 and unsealed Wednesday in Miami, charges Castro and five Cuban military officials in connection with the February 24, 1996, attack that killed three American citizens and one legal permanent resident. The Justice Department announced the charges at Miami's Freedom Tower, a symbol of the Cuban exile community and the site where hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees were processed after fleeing Fidel Castro's revolution.

Brothers........

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