DOJ indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro over fatal 1996 civilian planes’ shooting

The Department of Justice indicted former Cuban president Raul Castro on Wednesday in connection with the 1996 shooting of two civilian planes that killed four Cuban Americans.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said that Castro, who is the brother of the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, is being charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, murder and destruction of aircraft.

Four Cuban American men - three U.S. citizens and one a U.S. legal resident - Armando Alejandre, Carlos Alberto Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña and Pablo Morales died aboard the civilian planes downed by the Cuban air force on Feb. 24, 1996.

At that time, Castro was Cuba's defense minister.

The civilian planes belonged to brothers to the rescue, a group founded in 1991 by Cuban American pilot José Basulto and other Cuban exiles.

The group would go on missions to rescue Cubans in the waters between Cuba and Florida, after they fled the communist country in makeshift rafts.

During one of those missions, two of their planes were shot down by a Cuban mig-29 in international airspace.

Cuba has repeatedly claimed the planes were violating Cuban airspace.

The charges were announced during a press conference in front of Miami's freedom tower, a symbol for Cuban Americans who left the communist country. On May 20, the date recognized as the Cuban Independence Day.

The Clinton Administration and Congress swiftly condemned Cuba's actions at the time, leading to sanctions and other measures as well as the conviction of a man, accused of giving Cuba information about brothers to the rescue's missions.

But 30 years later, the incident remains one of the most politically charged episodes in modern U.S.-Cuba relations.

Cuban American lawmakers, exile activists and family members of the victims have long called for Castro to be criminally charged in the U.S.

Photo courtesy: NBC NEWS ORBIT