The United States Government is preparing a criminal charge against Raul Modesto Castrothe Cuban general and politician who was president of cuba from February 24, 2008 to April 18, 2018, for his alleged responsibility in the downing of two small planes of the organization Brothers to the Rescue in February 1996.
This incident caused the death of four pilots. Americans and the United States Department of Justice will seek to prosecute the case that occurred more than 30 years ago, because the Cuban military aircraft they knocked down the two civil planes of the opposition group Brothers to the Rescue in the most airspace nearby to Cuba.
According to what was stated by the American television network Univisionthe criminal accusation against Castro represents a hardening of the stance of the president of the United States, donald trumpagainst the 94-year-old former Cuban president, which intensifies the diplomatic tensions more than three decades after the events.
Faced with this scenario, the formal accusation could be announced in Miami, Floridathis Wednesday 20 May, which would mark a legal milestone for crimes that occurred during the 1996 crisis in Cuba, characterized by productive paralysis after the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and by acute diplomatic tension with the United States.
Chronology of the Raúl Castro case
Saturday February 24, 1996
Last Saturday morning February 24, 1996more than three decades ago, war planes of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (FAR) went out in search of three small planes Brothers to the Rescuea humanitarian organization of Cuban exiles in Miami, known for rescuing rafters in the Florida Strait.
According to the Univision television network, the squadron of civil aviators Cuban-Americans saved, for a long time, the rafters coming from Cuba in the Strait of Florida, by launching water and foodin addition to marking their exact location to the United States Coast Guard so they could rescue them.
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However, during the afternoon of February 24, 1996, two of the three Hermanos al Rescate planes were destroyed in the air by the Revolutionary Armed Forces, which caused the death of the pilots from the humanitarian organization of exiles: Armando Alexander, Carlos Coast, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
Despite that, the third plane from Brothers to the Rescue managed to escape. Four Cuban exiles were traveling on board, including the two leaders of the organization, José Basulto and Sylvia Iriondoactivists, aviators and Cuban dissidents who later they demanded to the Government of Cuba for the downing of his squadron’s aircraft.
A before and after
“Two of the three planes were shot down with soviet missiles that the russians they had supplied to the Government of Cuba. Imagine, that is something that one cannot prepare for,” added José Basulto during an interview with Univisión, after highlighting that he only carried out missions to save to Cubans who crossed the sea on rafts.
For its part, Sylvia Iriondowho at the time began helping Cuban refugees in need in Miaminoted that the organization maintained the hope: “That human hope within our hearts that, perhaps, at any moment we could hear the voices of our loved ones again.” siblings“, argument.
However, according to Basulto and Iriondo, that Saturday, February 24, 1996, marked a before and after in the relations between the US Government of then President Bill Clinton and the Cuban regime Fidel Castrosince two weeks later the United States increased the sanctions against the authorities of Havana.