30 years ago, Cuba shot down a plane carrying Americans. Now former President Raul Castro could be indicted over it

By Hira Humayun, CNN

(CNN) — Former Cuban leader Raul Castro could be indicted for his alleged role in the shooting down of two civilian planes 30 years ago that killed three Americans and sent US-Cuba relations plunging.

The planes belonging to a Miami-based volunteer organization called Brothers to the Rescue were shot down in 1996 – triggering the longstanding embargo on Cuba that remains in place today.

Sources told CNN last week that federal prosecutors were looking into bringing charges against Castro, who was the island’s defense minister at the time of the 1996 incident. The Department of Justice has said it will make an announcement in Miami on Wednesday in conjunction with a ceremony to honor those killed – but has not been explicit about what that announcement will be.

News of the potential indictment comes as the Trump administration has become increasingly confrontational with Cuba, intensifying sanctions and imposing an oil blockade.

Here’s what you need to know about the incident at the center of the potential indictment.

What happened?

In the 1990s, Brothers to the Rescue carried out regular flights attempting to find and assist Cubans trying to sail to the US.

On one such mission, on February 24, 1996, Cuban forces shot down two of their planes near to the Cuban coast, destroying them with heat-seeking missiles, according to Congress documents. Three American citizens and one resident of the US were killed. A third Brothers aircraft escaped.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the Cuban government accused Brothers to the Rescue of engaging in covert operations against the regime – allegations the US swiftly denied.

According to the US government, the Brothers to the Rescue planes were unarmed and the volunteers aboard posed no threat to the Cuban government, military or population.

Who are Brothers to the Rescue?

Brothers to the Rescue, which is no longer active, has in the past described itself as a pro-democracy humanitarian group dedicated to helping Cuban people free themselves from dictatorship, using nonviolent means.

The volunteer activist group was founded in May 1991 by anti-regime Cuban exile Jose Basulto, who was on the plane that escaped, and made up of Cuban American pilots flying out of Miami area airports. Its inception came after Cuban teenager Gregoria Perez Ricardo, who fled the communist-run island, died of severe dehydration while crossing the Florida Straits, according to the group.

They also dropped leaflets over Cuba criticizing the communist government of Fidel Castro, the country’s former revolutionary leader who made Cuba the first Communist country in the Western Hemisphere – and played a central role in the Cold War.

During the Fidel Castro dictatorship, arbitrary arrests, brutal crackdowns on dissent, beatings, intimidation, and surveillance were common. Many of those trying to flee the island – some on makeshift rafts – wouldn’t survive the perilous journey across the Florida Straits.

How did the US respond?

The US government swiftly condemned the shooting down of the two planes and just days later, President Bill Clinton signed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act, also known as the Helms-Burton Act.

The act tightened sanctions on Cuba and remains the basis of US embargos on the country. The law called for an act of Congress to lift any part of the embargo against Cuba. Visas would be denied to anyone using or profiting from Cuban property – and to Cuban government employees and communist party members, under the law.

The act also prohibited the US president from removing trade restrictions on the Caribbean nation until it legalizes political activity and commits to free and fair elections. It also prevented the US from lifting sanctions while Fidel Castro or his brother and successor Raul Castro were part of Cuba’s government.

“The response chosen by Fidel Castro, the use of lethal force, was completely inappropriate to the situation presented to the Cuban government, making such actions a blatant and barbaric violation of international law and tantamount to cold-blooded murder,” Congress said at the time, calling it a “premeditated act” that came after a major crackdown on a coalition of pro-democracy rights groups on the island.

The 1996 act also enabled the US president – under certain conditions – to support and assist NGOs and individuals in democracy-building efforts.

US Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright condemned the Cuban pilots who had used the Spanish word for testicles on their radios to congratulate themselves after shooting down the planes. “Frankly, this is not cojones,” she said. “This is cowardice.”

What was the fallout in Cuba?

Fidel Castro took responsibility for the incident, saying he gave orders to his military to shoot down planes violating Cuba airspace. The US insists the planes were downed in international airspace.

Cuban representative to the UN Security Council at the time Bruno Rodriguez Parilla, asserted that Cuba had proof the two aircraft were in the country’s airspace and that prior to shooting them down, Cuban authorities had issued warnings to them, such as rocking their wings, which he said were ignored.

Days after the shootdown, then-Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina Gonzalez told the UN General Assembly that Brothers to the Rescue had plans to harm Cuba including sabotaging an oil refinery and targeting Cuban leaders.

“Today we are asking this assembly if the sovereign right to defend the borders and national security of countries is only a prerogative of the powerful and not of poor and small countries,” he said.

The FBI later found that Cuban agents had infiltrated exile groups and fed information back to the Cuban government, including about the Brothers to the Rescue’s ill-fated February 24 mission. Five Cuban spies were arrested in 1998 and later convicted on charges they had spied on prominent Cuban-American exile leaders and US military bases.

During his presidency US President Barack Obama released them in a deal to restore relations with Cuba, with Havana releasing State Department contractor Alan Gross.

How is it remembered?

Cuban exiles and regime critics like Basulto were quick to call for justice, demanding Fidel Castro be indicted following the incident. That sentiment among many Cuban-Americans hasn’t changed, though Fidel Castro died in 2016.

Cuban-American Republican lawmakers have since pushed the Justice Department to bring charges against Raul Castro. In a February letter to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, lawmakers including Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart urged the Justice Department to prosecute Raul Castro, citing evidence including reports that there is a recording of radio traffic that indicates he ordered the shoot-down.

But some Cubans stand behind their government’s actions from decades ago, insisting it was a matter of safeguarding national security – and that Raul Castro shouldn’t be punished for it.

“I believe that was an invasion, however you look at it, and we have to defend ourselves because if any plane had flown past the Twin Towers, and they’d known it was going to be sabotaged, they would have shot it down,” Havana resident Eliecer Diaz told Reuters. “I think that’s only logical. Cuba did the right thing.”

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