Raúl Castro indictment brings back history of Cuba’s downing of U.S. civilian planes

MIAMI — The families of four Cuban exiles killed in 1996 when the Cuban military shot down their civilian planes said Wednesday’s indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro was long overdue.

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“I hope that justice will be done for my father and for the three other men. We have waited 30 years to the day,” said Marlène Alejandre, who attended the announcement of the indictment. She was 18 when her father, Armando Alejandre, was killed.

The indictment of Castro, who turns 95 next month, and five other Cuban nationals brings to the forefront a three-decade-old incident that shook the international community and continues to profoundly affect U.S.-Cuba relations to this day.

Here’s a brief overview of what happened then.

The civilian planes shot down by Cuba belonged to Brothers to the Rescue, a group founded in 1991 by Cuban-American pilot José Basulto and other U.S.-based Cuban exiles strongly opposed to the Cuban government. Basulto said he participated in the botched 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, sponsored by the CIA in an effort to oust Fidel Castro.

Brothers to the Rescue operated search and rescue flights over the Florida Straits. In the early 1990s, communist-ruled Cuba was plunged into a deep economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had heavily subsidized it for decades. There were extreme shortages of food and medicine, and thousands of Cubans were taking to the sea in dangerous makeshift boats and rafts in an attempt to reach the United States.

In 1994, Cuba and the United States signed an immigration agreement, then a “wet foot, dry foot” policy in 1995 sent Cubans home if they were caught at sea, which helped stem the mass exodus. But Cubans still regularly try to leave the country.

Brothers to the Rescue regularly flew small planes over the waters to try to spot other Cubans in order to alert the U.S. Coast Guard to come to their aid. But it also occasionally entered Cuban airspace, according to declassified U.S. documents that cite an official warning from the Federal Aviation Administration about the group’s “taunting” of the Cuban government. The declassified documents also indicate that the Cuban government protested Brotherhood to the Rescue flights over Cuba and dropped anti-government leaflets.

On February 24, 1996, three Cessnas took off from Miami. During their mission, a Cuban MiG-29 shot down two in international airspace.

Cuba said the planes were violating Cuban airspace. Reports from the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights disagree, concluding that the Brothers to the Rescue planes were still in international airspace when they were shot down.

According to the UN report, “Cuba acted without resorting to standard interception procedures” when it shot down the planes, resulting in the deaths of Alejandre, Carlos Alberto Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña and Pablo Morales.

According to the United Nations aviation organization, these men “died as a result of direct actions carried out by agents of the Cuban state in international airspace.”

In a 1996 interview with Time magazine, Fidel Castro said he had ordered his army to shoot down planes violating Cuban airspace.

Subsequently, President Bill Clinton quickly condemned Cuba’s actions.

Instead of launching strikes on Cuban military bases, Clinton chose to support a bill to impose much stricter restrictions on Cuba.

“There were no sponsors because it was considered too extreme and there was no real interest on the part of Congress to move it forward,” said Ricardo Herrero, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, a nonpartisan group. “After the shooting, there was a huge public outcry and Clinton felt he had to act.”

The House and Senate passed the Cuban Freedom and Democratic Solidarity Act (LIBERTAD), also known as the Helms-Burton Act, and Clinton signed it.

The law has repercussions to this day, since it transformed the sanctions into American law. From now on, only Congress can lift the restrictive embargo against Cuba and only if a series of conditions are met, including the establishment of a “transitional government”.

The Helms-Burton Act also allowed the original owners of Cuban properties confiscated by Castro to sue the companies using them in U.S. courts. This part of the law was only enforced in 2019 by President Donald Trump.

Some lawsuits have recently been settled out of court, including those against shipping companies Crowley Maritime and SeaBoard Marine.

Cuba’s top leaders have not been charged over the shooting. In 1998, five Cuban secret service agents, known as the “Cuban Five,” were arrested and convicted of conspiracy and failure to register as foreign agents. One of them, Gerardo Hernández, was convicted of conspiracy to murder for providing information to the Cuban government about Brotherhood Planes and was serving two life sentences plus 15 years.

During President Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba in 2014, the five spies were released in exchange for a Cuban spy who had worked with the United States for 20 years.

Nancy Morales, Pablo Morales’ sister, was still living in Cuba when he was shot. She found out when a friend living in the United States called her. Morales told NBC News that the period after the plane strikes was tortuous because she was harassed by pro-government mobs. This lasted until she and her daughter were able to come to the United States a few months later.

On Wednesday, they drove two hours from their Florida home to attend the event at Miami’s Freedom Tower, where the indictments were announced. It is considered a symbolic place for Cuban-Americans who left the communist country.

“I have always waited for this moment and I have a lot of hope,” Morales said. “I hope that the Cuban people can regain freedom very soon and that we can enjoy a free Cuba.”

Mirta Costa Méndez, Carlos Costa’s sister, said: “I’ve been waiting for this for 30 years. »

She said she didn’t know how she would feel if Castro was extradited, because ultimately, “nothing will bring my brother back.”