A call for justice Thursday from Republican members of Congress – wanting to see former Cuban president Raúl Castro indicted for the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown nearly 30 years ago.
Cuban Activist Sylvia Iriondo was on board one of the three planes on February 24, 1996.
“That day, a heinous crime was committed; the most noble work of humanity is that of saving lives,” said Sylvia Iriondo Cuban Activist.
They were on a humanitarian mission in search of Cuban rafters in international airspace when two of the planes were shot down by the Cuban military.
24-year-old Mario de la Peña, 29-year-old Carlos Costa, 34-year-old Pablo Morales and 45-year-old Armando Alejandre Junior were killed.
“We are not willing to forget when people are murdered in cold blood and pretend it didn’t happen, and I looked the other way,” Mario Diaz Balart
Representatives Mario Diaz Balart, Carlos Gimenez, Maria Elvira Salazar, US Senator Ashley Moody, and Cuban activists gathered with victims’ family members to remember and to demand justice.
“They gave their lives in that fight for freedom, and we owe it to them to show up 30 years later and demand that the person who ordered their murder be brought to justice,” said U.S Senator Ashley Moody.
They’re urging the US government to reopen the case and seek an indictment for Raúl Castro.
In a letter sent to President Donald Trump, they detailed Castro’s involvement in the shootdown, saying in part:
“…on February 24, 1996, Raúl Castro ordered a Cuban Mig fighter jet to engage and obliterate two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft over international waters.”
They want the president to consider an audio recording obtained by the Miami Herald where “Raúl Castro can be heard discussing giving the orders to shoot down the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft…”
And they cited a Time Magazine interview from weeks after the shootdown with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Where the late Cuban leader identified Raul Castro, the Cuban Defense Minister at the time of the shootdowns, as part of the chain of command that decided to target the Brothers to the Rescue planes.”
“This is a hot case, there is evidence then, and I’m hoping there is new evidence corroborate that Raul Castro was involved in that conspiracy to murder the Brothers to the rescue,” said Senator Moody.
Senator Moody added that this will take some time because they will have to go through a grand jury process.
