Florida issues arrest warrant for Raúl Castro over the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown

October 21, 2026

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Monday, October 19, at Florida International University that the state has obtained an arrest warrant for 95-year-old Raúl Castro on a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The warrant was signed by Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of Florida's Eleventh Judicial Circuit, and prosecutors said it allows no bond.

The charge concerns the February 24, 1996, downing of two Cessna planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based group that searched for Cuban rafters in the Florida Straits. All four men aboard were killed: Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr. Castro was Cuba's defense minister at the time. State prosecutors say parts of the alleged conspiracy, including the gathering of flight information, took place in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

The state case is separate from the federal indictment unsealed in Miami on May 20, 2026, which charged Castro and five others with murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and destruction of aircraft. "Raúl Castro ordered the cold-blooded murder of four Floridians," Uthmeier said in announcing the warrant.

In Havana, President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the warrant a "pathetic Miami circus with an electoral backdrop" and said it has no legal standing whatsoever. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío also condemned it in social media posts.