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The Florida Attorney General's Office has obtained a state arrest warrant for former Cuban president Raúl Castro for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder over the 1996 downing of two United States light aircraft belonging to the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue, the state's attorney general, James Uthmeier, reported on Monday.
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The warrant was issued by a judge after Uthmeier ordered the reopening of the investigation last year into the involvement of Castro, who was then the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), in the attack that left four people dead.
Castro was also formally charged last May by U.S. federal authorities for his alleged participation in the events, including charges of murder and conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens.
"Raúl Castro ordered the cold-blooded murder of four Florida residents, and the state will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy," Uthmeier affirmed.
According to the affidavit, Castro, then the first vice president of Cuba, was one of those responsible for making the "final decision within the chain of command that authorized the downing."
"Castro gave standing orders to high-ranking military commanders: 'Fine, shoot them down at sea when they appear, and those with the authority to do so need not consult anyone,'" the Attorney General's Office highlighted in a statement.
The attorney general maintained that Cuban government spies were operating in Florida communities, gathering intelligence and relaying it to Havana, which he claimed helped Cuban MiG fighters locate the unarmed civilian pilots.
Uthmeier remembered the four fatal victims: Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña, and Armando Alejandre Jr.
The four were part of Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization dedicated to searching for and assisting Cubans attempting to flee the island by sea.
The two unarmed Cessna aircraft, which took off from Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade County, were "well outside of Cuba's territorial waters" when Cuban MiG fighters destroyed them with air-to-air missiles, causing the deaths of their four occupants, the Florida Attorney General's Office detailed.
The state warrant constitutes a new step in the case, which Florida reopened in March, three decades after the attack.
The court ordered that Castro, 95 and a resident of Cuba, be held without bail; the former president retired from his political posts in 2021, though he maintains influence on the island.
The case comes at a time of growing pressure from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on the Cuban government, with new measures against figures linked to the island's government and a tightening of sanctions that coincides with the deep economic crisis currently facing Cuba. EFE
[Publicidad]