The music that was heard a few days ago found its score this Wednesday in the Florida courts. The untouchable Raúl Castro, historic Cuban leader aged 94, brother of the great leader Fidel and former president of the country, was indicted by a grand jury on various charges related to the shooting down of two planes from the organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, when he was Minister of Defense. Four people died.
Read more Mango tries to reassure its workers: “The collaboration has been and will be maximum”
“He deserves it because he gave the order,” said an emotional Reinaldo Martín to CNN. He was one of the pilots of that humanitarian organization. “Raúl gave the order and that argument that we attacked Cuba’s sovereignty is false, we were in international waters. This must be the beginning for Cuba to be free, which is what Cubans deserve,” he emphasized in his reaction to that indictment which marks an escalation in the Trump administration’s pressure against the Havana regime, at a difficult moment after the energy blockade decreed by the White House that has led the island to daily power outages and a severe economic and social crisis.
Reinaldo Martín, to CNN: “He deserves it because he gave the order”
Castro, president between 2008 and 2018 and top leader of the Communist Party until the end of the last decade, and five other people were charged by that federal grand jury in Florida. The former president, although he is considered still the hand that moves the strings of power, was charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, four counts of murder, and two of aircraft destruction. The South Florida district attorney, Jason Reding Quiñones, stressed that Castro “authorized the shooting down” of the planes and welcomed that justice is finally being done for the victims’ families, who “have waited 30 years.”
Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez, Emilio Jose Palacio Blanco, Jose Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cardenas, and Luis Raúl Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez were charged with conspiracy to kill Americans.
The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, called the Trump administration’s initiative “illegal and provocative,” which “only seeks to bolster the argument to justify the folly of a military aggression,” he insisted.
“The alleged accusation shows the arrogance and frustration that the empire’s representatives feel caused by the unbreakable firmness of the Cuban revolution and the unity and moral strength of its leadership,” he said. “The ethical height and humanistic sense of its work demolish any infamy that is intended to be raised against Army General Raúl Castro,” Díaz-Canel emphasized, calling the decision in the U.S. a “ridiculous attempt to diminish his stature as a hero.”
“The U.S. lies and manipulates the events around the shooting down of the planes of the narco-terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996,” he replied regarding the facts on which the indictment is based.
Trump told reporters that “today is a great day,” once the indictment was revealed. He reiterated that Cuba is a failed country and that its leaders have lost control. “We have them in our sights and we will free it,” although he seemed to rule out that there will be “an escalation” and called for upcoming news.
The matter, which will hardly reach trial by a normal route, is loaded with symbolism. Cuba does not extradite people to the United States. But many recall what happened with former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who had been charged with narcoterrorism and was kidnapped from his home in Caracas in early last January. He is now imprisoned in New York to be tried. So, deep down, and as many Cuban Americans hope, this sets the basis for a possible military action aimed at removing Castro from his country.
Read more The charitable foundation of discord between Jonathan and Isak Andic
“I’m not going to compare cases,” replied the U.S. acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, during the event held in Miami when he was reminded of what happened with Maduro. “We indict people all the time who are not physically in the United States. This is not a new project or an adventure for us. And the way we bring accused people varies,” he clarified.
The events date back 30 years, when the raft crisis was in full swing, Cubans fleeing by sea with any type of boat. More than 125,000 Cubans risked and defied death to reach the United States in a journey of more than one hundred kilometers.
A group of exiled Cuban pilots based in Florida created the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue, which flew over the routes of the rafters to drop supplies and alert the U.S. Coast Guard of their presence. On one of those missions, on February 24, 1996, two planes from the group approached the 24th parallel, which marks Havana’s air boundary, and were shot down. Cuba justified the attack as an intrusion into its airspace. The United States replied that the aggression occurred in the sky over international waters.
According to the indictment document, the U.S. alleges that, in the weeks prior to the attack, Cuban military pilots conducted training exercises designed to locate and intercept slow-moving civilian aircraft.
On the day of the incident, three BTTR planes departed from Opa-locka airport (Florida) for a humanitarian flight planned south of the 24th parallel. Two of the aircraft were allegedly attacked and shot down in international airspace, the document emphasizes.
Applause was repeated this Wednesday at the Freedom Tower in Miami, where the event took place, at the moment Blanche announced the charges against Raúl Castro and paid tribute to the four deceased (Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandro Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales). Blanche did not want to specify why the indictment was presented this Wednesday. But this day, May 20, marks Cuba’s independence.
“For the first time in almost 70 years, high-ranking Cuban regime leaders have been charged in the United States for acts of violence that resulted in the death of U.S. citizens. Nations and their leaders cannot afford to attack Americans, kill them, and not face accountability,” Blanche emphasized.
Read more The «forced» step of Isak Andic before falling into the void, clue in the investigation
