The Justice Department revealed in an unsealed indictment on Wednesday that Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, the brother of former Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro, has been charged in connection with a 1996 attack on two airplanes in which four U.S. nationals, including three U.S. citizens, were killed.
The unsealed indictment against Ruz — the second revolutionary leader of Communist Cuba following the death of his brother Fidel — was made public after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida charged him and other co-conspirators in connection with the attack.
The charges include conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, the destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder. The aircraft were humanitarian supply-and-rescue planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR) over international waters near Cuba.
For 30 years, Cuban exiles in America and their representatives in Congress such Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., pressured the DOJ to bring charges against the 94-year-old Ruz, his late brother Fidel, and others in connection with the Cuban MiG fighter jets shooting down the BTTR civilian planes when they were outside Cuban airspace and flying back toward Florida.
Ruz is the former president of Cuba, having succeeded his brother in the role for a decade in the wake of his brother’s 2008 death, and he is also the former director of the Cuban Secret Services, the former commander-in-chief of the Cuban Air Force, and the former minister of the Ministry of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces from 1959 to 2008.
