Президент Кубы Рауль Кастро выступает с заявлением во Дворце Революции в Гаване в понедельник, 21 марта 2016 года.
adiaz@miamiherald.com
ТАЛЛАХАССИ
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday that he will file state charges against Raul Castro for conspiring with Cuban spies in 1996 to commit first-degree murder.
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A Miami judge on Friday already signed an arrest warrant for the former Cuban president, approved by the chief judge on the 11th Judicial Circuit Court at the request of Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
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“Raul Castro called for the planes to be shot down. He called for murder,” Uthmeier said during a Miami news conference.
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He spoke from Florida International University’s courtroom, which is named after the four U.S. nationals killed in the 1996 shoot down of two civilian planes operated by the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue group. Castro was Cuba’s head of armed forces at the time of the attack.
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“We’re filing the charges, we’ve secured the warrant and we look forward to prosecuting the case,” he said.
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The move comes months after Uthmeier in March announced a state-level criminal investigation into Castro’s role in the incident.
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This is Castro’s second arrest warrant related to the airstrike.
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The Justice Department already charged the now-95-year-old in May with murder and conspiracy to kill.
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For decades, Florida lawmakers have demanded investigations, indictments and imprisonment for the Cuban leadership involved. Florida is home to the largest Cuban diaspora in the nation.
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The closest America came was a 2003 federal indictment of a Cuban general and two fighter pilots — until this year, the 30th anniversary of the shootdown.
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In May, Uthmeier joined Justice Department officials at the Miami Freedom Tower when the federal government announced its arrest warrant and charges.
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Now, Florida has issued a warrant of its own in the 11th Judicial Circuit, signed off on by Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan. She is the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term.
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The warrant, obtained by the Herald/Times, said there is probable cause that Castro committed one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
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On Monday, Uthmeier said state charges are necessary — even if they can’t announce Castro’s actual arrest — because it helps prevent the ex-leader from traveling to U.S.-friendly countries, and ensures Castro can’t be pardoned by a future “communist sympathizer” in the White House.
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The president can only pardon federal charges, not state ones.
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The case centers on the Cuban government shooting down two Brothers to the Rescue flights, a civilian rescue group dedicated to saving refugees fleeing the authoritarian Castro regime — then run by Raul Castro’s older brother Fidel.
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The Castros claimed the flights were over Cuban waters. Both the United States and a United Nations investigation concluded that the shootdown happened over international waters.
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According to the affidavit submitted Friday, Florida has jurisdiction to charge Castro because of the actions of two Cuban spies in Miami and Key West who “infiltrated” Brothers to the Rescue.
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Weeks before the shootdown, the spies allegedly reported on the naval airbase in Key West and were told to transmit Brothers to the Rescue flight data back to the Cuban authorities.
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The affidavit says the spy network told the moles not to fly with Brothers to the Rescue between Feb. 24 and 27. On the 23rd, one of them left Florida and returned to Cuba.
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The next day, the Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force destroyed two Brothers to the Rescue planes. Three Americans and one legal permanent resident were killed.
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“(There is) probable cause to believe the defendant, Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, agreed with others to commit first-degree murder of … persons aboard (the Brothers to the Rescue) aircraft,” the affidavit reads. It said that the spies transmitting flight data and surveilling the naval air station is enough probable cause to believe that a “conspiracy” took place in Florida.
Эта история была первоначально опубликована 18 октября 2026 г., 22:01.
