You don't see Raúl Castro in public as much as you used to. The Cuban regime parades him out from time to time or shares photos and videos with state media to project continuity and, I suppose, to reassure the people. (Though, I'm guessing the people would rather have electricity and gas for their cars.)
The 94-year-old is noticeably thinner, his mobility has declined, and he's unsteady and lacks energy. He's sort of a symbolic human version of the state of the Cuban nation... though he probably has more food to eat.
If several members of Congress have their way, he'll also have a United States indictment on his plate.
On Friday, Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), Carlos A. Giménez (R-Fla.), and Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) sent a strongly worded letter to President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue criminal charges against Castro for his role in the 1996 Brother to the Rescue shootdown.
Brothers to the Rescue, or Hermanos al Rescate, is a Miami-based humanitarian and political activism organization that was formed by Cuban exiles in the early 1990s and that opposes the communist regime and the Castros. Some of its work includes rescuing Cubans who tried to flee the country via raft and spreading pro-democracy ideals, which included dropping leaflets into the country from a plane.
In 1996, Cuba shot down two of the organization's unarmed planes over the Florida Straits, in an area considered to be international waters, killing the four people aboard: Carlos Costa; Armando Alejandre, Jr.; Mario de la Peña; and Pablo Morales. Three of them were United States citizens, while the fourth was a permanent resident. February 24 will mark the 30th anniversary of their deaths.
At the time, Raúl was the minister of defense and part of the chain of command that ordered the attack. The United States, the United Nations, and numerous members of the International Community condemned it.
"We respectfully request the Department of Justice consider indicting Raul Castro who is responsible for the cold-blooded murders of three Americans and a U.S. permanent resident in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown of two civilian aircraft by Cuban Mig fighter jets, and consider whether Interpol 'red notices' should be issued against him," the letter from the members of Congress states, adding that doing so would align with the president's America First policies and support U.S. national security in the Western Hemisphere.
They continue with the following points:
It is our understanding, based on public information, that on February 24, 1996, Raul Castro ordered a Cuban Mig fighter jet to engage and obliterate two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft over international waters...
- Raul Castro Ruz is the brother of the late tyrant Fidel Castro and the former Director of the Cuban Secret Services, Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Air Force, President of the Ministry of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and Deputy Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party.
- In an audio recording of a conversation which took place just weeks after the shooting and obtained by The Miami Herald, Raul Castro can be heard discussing giving the orders to shoot down the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft: In the recording, Raul Castro can be heard saying: 'I told them [Cuban Mig pilots] to try to knock them down over [Cuban] territory,' and 'Knock them down into the sea when they reappear.'
- In an interview that appeared in Time Magazine on March 11, 1996 with Reginald K. Brack, Jr., Chairman of Time, Inc., Fidel Castro 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.
- On November 14, 1997, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King found Cuba guilty in civil court of planning the shootdown before the actual attack.
- . A jury in criminal trial presided over by U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard on June 10, 2001 convicted Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez of conspiracy to commit murder because of his role in providing information to the Cuban regime on the flight plans of Brothers to the Rescue.
- While serving two life sentences in U.S. federal prison, President Obama commuted Hernandez's sentence in 2014 as part of his appeasement policy toward Cuba. To date, he is the only person that has ever been held to account for the heinous attack.
- On August 21, 2003, a U.S. grand jury indicted the two Cuban fighter pilots, Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez and Francisco Perez-Perez, and their commanding general, Ruben Martinez Puente, then head of the Cuban Air Force, on murder charges for the 1996 shootdown ordered by Raul Castro. They were charged with four counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and two counts of destruction of aircraft.
- The two civilian aircraft that were destroyed were unarmed Cessnas, shot down in international waters by Cuban military MiGs. The International Civil Aviation Organization confirmed in its report that the Cuban regime acted unlawfully because the unarmed planes were not over its territory or in its airspace.
So, are these members of Congress hoping Trump and Bondi will take Castro out Nicolás Maduro-style?
No, this is largely symbolic. It's also personal. All four of these congresspeople represent districts that are home to a lot of Cuban exiles, who are tired of the Cuban regime acting with impunity. All four of the congresspeople also have Cuban parents, and Giménez was actually born in Cuba himself.
For our entire country, however, it does brand Raúl as a wanted murderer internationally, potentially triggering an Interpol red notice, travel bans, or asset freezes. It also puts even more pressure on the Cuban regime. It's essentially another tool that the U.S. can pull from our national security toolbox to continue our clean-up of the crime and corruption in our hemisphere.
