Raúl Castro’s Florida Warrant: How It Differs From the Federal Case
Raúl Castro warrant: Florida charges him with conspiracy to murder over the 1996 shootdown. How the state case compares with the federal indictment.
MIAMI, 20 October 2026 – Florida has opened its own murder case against Raúl Castro, five months after a federal grand jury indicted the former Cuban leader over the same event. Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on 19 October that the Office of Statewide Prosecution and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had secured a state arrest warrant charging Castro with one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The court ordered no bond.
Both cases concern 24 February 1996, when Cuban MiG fighters shot down two unarmed Cessnas flown by the Miami exile group Brothers to the Rescue, killing Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. This report sets out what the affidavit behind the Raúl Castro warrant adds, how the two prosecutions compare and what the 1996 international record says.
What the Florida warrant alleges
The warrant cites Florida Statutes §§ 777.04(3) and 782.04(1)(a)1, and the offense is a first-degree felony. Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit signed it.
According to the affidavit summarized by the attorney general’s office, Castro, then minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and first vice president, was “a final decision-maker in the chain of command that authorized the shootdown.” The affidavit attributes a standing order to him: “Fine, shoot them down at sea when they show up, and those who have the authority are not to consult anyone.”
The state’s case for jurisdiction rests on Cuban intelligence work inside Florida. The release says agents of the Wasp Network in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, reported its flight plans and supported “Operación Escorpión.” Court documents also say the spies monitored the naval station in Key West, CBS Miami reported. Because parts of the alleged conspiracy took place in two judicial circuits, the Office of Statewide Prosecution takes the case. The state says the case remains active and further charges are possible.
The federal case it builds on
On 20 May 2026, the Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment against Castro and five co-defendants. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said it was “the first time in nearly 70 years” that senior Cuban leaders had been charged in the United States over violence that killed Americans. The indictment alleges that Cuban pilots trained in the preceding weeks to intercept slow civilian aircraft, and that the two Cessnas, tail numbers N2456S and N5485S, were destroyed “without warning” outside Cuban territory. The only defendant in US custody, Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, 65, was awaiting sentencing at the time in a separate immigration false-statement case, the department said.
| Question | Federal case (S.D. Fla.) | Florida case |
|---|---|---|
| Filed | Superseding indictment unsealed 20 May 2026 | Arrest warrant announced 19 October 2026 |
| Defendants | Castro and five co-defendants | Castro; further charges possible |
| Charges | Conspiracy to kill US nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft, four counts of murder | One count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder |
| Maximum penalty | Death or life imprisonment on the murder and conspiracy counts | First-degree felony; no bond ordered |
| Basis for jurisdiction | Killing of US nationals; three of the four victims were US citizens | Spy activity in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties |
| Presidential pardon | Applies to federal charges | Cannot reach state charges, Uthmeier said |
The 1996 record: a timeline
- 15 May 1994 to 4 April 1995: Cuba notifies the United States of airspace violations by Brothers to the Rescue on seven occasions, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) fact-finding report.
- 14 July 1995: Cuba publicly warns that aircraft intruding into its airspace might be shot down.
- 13 January 1996: The plane later piloted to safety on 24 February flies low over Havana, dropping leaflets. The ICAO report says the United States initiated legal action against its pilot, José Basulto, the group’s president.
- 24 February 1996: Three Cessnas leave Opa-locka Airport. Two are shot down; the third returns.
- 27 February 1996: The UN Security Council, in a presidential statement, strongly deplores the shootdown and asks ICAO to investigate.
- 26 July 1996: The Council adopts Resolution 1067 by 13 votes to none, with China and Russia abstaining.
- 2025: Uthmeier directs state prosecutors to reopen the investigation.
- 20 May 2026: The federal indictment is unsealed in Miami.
- 19 October 2026: Florida announces its warrant at Florida International University.
The ICAO findings cut both ways, which matters for any future trial. The team found the Brothers to the Rescue planes had deviated from their flight plans and entered danger areas designated by Cuba. It also found the two aircraft were shot down about 9 and 10 nautical miles outside Cuban territorial airspace, that Cuba did not try radio contact or other means first, and that standard interception procedures were not followed. Resolution 1067 endorsed those conclusions. At the 1996 Council meeting, Ricardo Alarcón, then president of Cuba’s National Assembly, accused the United States of trying to “manipulate information and falsify data,” the UN summary records.
Havana’s response
President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the warrant “repudiable” and “a pathetic Miami circus with an electoral background” that “has no, and will never have, the slightest legal, let alone practical, sense,” CiberCuba reported (our translation). Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla called Cuban American politicians “parasites,” and Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío described the warrant as a “maneuver in legal disguise.”
Why it matters
Peter’s World analysis, based on the sources cited above.
The practical effect of the warrant is limited, and Uthmeier said as much. Castro, 95, lives in Cuba, and the attorney general told reporters he was “not ignorant of the fact that Raul Castro is an older man who is probably not looking to march himself into Miami.” What the state case changes is the legal footing. It is a second prosecution under a different sovereign that a future federal pardon or dismissal could not erase, and it ties the conspiracy to acts on Florida soil rather than only to the deaths of US nationals. US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones described the approach as “parallel federal and state prosecutions.”
The two cases also raise the cost of travel for Castro. Uthmeier said any trip to a country with a US extradition agreement could lead to his arrest. In practice, that bears on any trip abroad, official or private.
The evidence is likely to face the same contest it faced in 1996. Prosecutors stress where and how the planes were downed. At the UN that year, Alarcón cited prior incursions into Cuban airspace, which the ICAO record also documents, and questioned the data used to locate the planes. The announcement came 15 days before the 3 November midterm elections, and Díaz-Canel described the case as electoral. The timing alone does not show partisan intent.
What to watch: whether the affidavit is released in full; any move to seek an Interpol notice; the next steps in the federal case; and whether Washington makes the charges part of its wider pressure on Havana.
Sources
- Florida Office of the Attorney General: State arrest warrant for Raúl Castro (Oct. 19, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Justice: Superseding indictment charging Raúl Castro and five co-defendants (May 20, 2026)
- UN Press: Security Council condemns use of weapons against civil aircraft, Resolution 1067 (July 26, 1996)
- CBS Miami: Raúl Castro faces new arrest warrant for Brothers to the Rescue shootdown (Oct. 19, 2026)
