Could this federal indictment lead to a diplomatic conflict?
By Easton Martin | May 20, 2026
The United States Department of Justice unsealed a federal criminal indictment on Wednesday against former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five other co-defendants. The landmark charges tie the ninety-four-year-old political figurehead to the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue.
The criminal indictment is one of the sharpest escalations in diplomatic conflict between Washington and Havana in decades. It arrives amid an ongoing economic crisis on the island, driven in part by tight U.S. fuel sanctions.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges at Miami’s historic Freedom Tower, a symbolic location that served as a processing center for hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees in the 1960s. The federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida originally returned the indictment on April 23, but prosecutors kept it under seal until Wednesday.
The indictment charges Castro and his co-defendants with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder. The five other Cuban individuals named in the document are Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, and Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez.
U.S. prosecutors allege that on February 24, 1996, Cuban military fighter jets acting under a chain of command overseen by Castro shot down two unarmed civilian Cessna aircraft. Castro served as Cuba’s defense minister at the time of the incident. The attack killed four men, Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.
A third plane flown by the group’s founder managed to escape the encounter and landed safely back in Florida. While the Cuban government previously argued that the planes violated Cuban territory, an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization concluded that the aircraft were targeted while operating in international airspace.
U.S. officials emphasized their determination to pursue the case despite thirty years passing since the initial event. FBI Director Kash Patel stated that the bureau never forgot the victims, describing the indictment as a major step toward long-awaited accountability for the families.
