On February 24, 1996, eight volunteers boarded three small Cessna planes near Miami, but only one made it back. Thirty years later, the US has charged Raul Castro, Cuba's former defense minister, with murder over the shootdown. Who were the victims?
The four men who died that day were volunteers, not soldiers: Carlos Alberto Costa, a Miami-born rescue flyer; Armando Alejandre Jr, a Vietnam veteran; Mario Manuel de la Pena, a 24-year-old student pilot; and Pablo Morales, a 29-year-old who had once escaped Cuba on a raft and been rescued by Brothers to the Rescue.
Their bodies were never found.
The attack caused international outrage, and a UN-backed report found that Cuba had fired on civilian aircraft in international airspace. The victims' families won a $187.6 million judgment in 1997, but it wasn't until May 20, 2026, that Raul Castro was charged with murder.
