As South Florida is set to honor the victims killed in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown on Wednesday, officials with the U.S. Department of Justice and Florida leaders will gather in Miami to make an announcement.
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Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones, FBI Deputy Director Christopher G. Raia, U.S. Senator Ashley Moody and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier will be at Miami’s Freedom Tower for the announcement.
According to two U.S. officials, the 1996 deaths of four men over the Florida Straits after two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down is the focus of a possible indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro by the Justice Department.
The potential indictment marks a dramatic escalation in tensions between Washington and Havana and comes nearly 30 years after Cuban fighter jets shot down the civilian planes during a humanitarian mission.
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José Basulto, founder of Brothers to the Rescue and a survivor of the mission, told NBC6 he has waited decades for accountability.
“I’ve been wishing for that for a long time,” Basulto said. “I’ve been wishing for justice to be served, justice to be realized.”
The victims’ families are expected to attend the event at Miami’s Freedom Tower, which coincides with Cuban Independence Day.
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