A Look at the 1996 Incident That Could See Raul Castro Indicted

A potential US indictment of Raul Castro has put an incident that unfolded in the skies near Cuba nearly three decades ago back in the spotlight. As CBS News reports, in February 1996, three small Cessna planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group based near Miami, flew toward Cuba on a mission the group said focused on spotting rafts at sea and supporting dissidents. Cuban authorities had long accused the group of violating its airspace and dropping anti-Castro leaflets—claims its founder, Bay of Pigs veteran José Basulto, has defended by arguing he had a right to enter his homeland.

On Feb. 24, 1996, Basulto radioed Havana that his plane was entering Cuba's air defense identification zone. A Cuban controller warned he was "taking a risk"; Basulto replied they were ready "as free Cubans," according to a UN aviation report. Minutes later, a Cuban MiG-29 destroyed two of the three Cessnas. Four people, including three US citizens, were killed. Radio transcripts recorded a Cuban pilot saying, "This one won't f*** with us anymore," and "Fatherland or death." Basulto's plane escaped back to Florida. Cuba later claimed that the planes were in its airspace, notes Reuters in its own look at the 30-year-old incident.

The US begged to differ, and a subsequent investigation by the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization concluded the shootdowns occurred over international waters and said Cuba failed to use less extreme measures before opening fire. Washington responded with tougher sanctions and halted charter flights; then-President Clinton said the planes posed "no credible threat" and that international law offered "no legal basis" for the attack. US courts later handed down a murder-conspiracy conviction to a Cuban spy linked to the incident and awarded more than $180 million to the victims' families in a civil case. Now, amid heightened US pressure on Havana, Florida politicians and Cuban-American activists are pushing for something unprecedented: a federal indictment of 94-year-old Raúl Castro, who commanded Cuba's armed forces at the time.