DOJ charges Raúl Castro, 94, with four murders in 1996 civilian plane shootdown

Federal prosecutors in Miami on Tuesday unveiled murder and aircraft-destruction charges tied to a nearly three-decade-old tragedy that has long inflamed Cuban American politics: the Feb. 24, 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes that killed four Cuban Americans. The announcement came at a May 20 news conference held outside the Freedom Tower, where the Justice Department framed the case as a long-delayed bid to hold senior Cuban officials criminally responsible for the downing of the aircraft. ^[1]

NBC News reported that prosecutors said a federal grand jury indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro on May 20, 2026, accusing him of playing a role in the incident and charging him with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, murder, and destruction of aircraft. Castro, 94, also served as Cuba’s defense minister, and the charges cast him as a central figure in an alleged plan to target the civilian flights. ^[1]

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche described the case as extending beyond Castro alone, saying the indictment names six defendants in total. In that account, Castro and five co-defendants face four counts of murder and a destruction-of-aircraft charge linked to the 1996 shootdown, a charging package that aligns the alleged deaths with specific criminal counts. ^[2]

The move is the latest escalation in a fast-developing legal push that has unfolded over the past week. On May 14, U.S. officials were reported to be moving toward an indictment of Castro, after CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with counterparts from Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior during a high-level visit to the island; by May 20, the Justice Department had publicly rolled out the charges. ^[1]

Conservative outlet RedState also described Castro’s May 20 indictment as stemming from his alleged role in the 1996 killing of four Cuban-American pilots, underscoring how the case continues to resonate across political audiences even as it heads into the slow, contested terrain of international accountability. ^[3]