{"id":789,"date":"2026-05-24T17:37:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=789"},"modified":"2026-05-24T17:37:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T17:37:30","slug":"family-seeks-626-million-over-american-pilots-execution-in-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=789","title":{"rendered":"Family seeks $626 million over American pilot’s execution in Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Fidel Castro called him his unconditional friend. They shared confidences, classrooms, and dreams at the University of Havana during the 1940s. However, that closeness ended in a historic betrayal.<\/p>\n

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The Cuban regime kidnapped, tortured, and executed Rafael Del Pino Siero, a U.S. citizen and World War II veteran. Today, amid a key geopolitical moment following the recent federal prosecution of Ra\u00fal Castro over the shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue planes, the Del Pino family is breaking its silence to demand that the crime not go unpunished and to seek compensation that now exceeds $626 million.<\/p>\n

Milagros Su\u00e1rez, co-legal representative of her father\u2019s estate, grew up with a relentless void. When Del Pino was lured to Cuba in July 1959, Milagros was still in her mother\u2019s womb. Her entire childhood and adolescence passed knowing her father only through the letters filled with love and promises that he managed to send from prison cells on the island. That\u2019s why the final outcome marked her life forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey killed him. He didn\u2019t die,\u201d Milagros says with a force that shakes you. \u201cThey killed him when I graduated from school… they called my mom and told her they had killed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discovering the communist threat<\/h2>\n

The story of this persecution began long before the revolution\u2019s victory. Del Pino Siero, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in June 1950 after serving honorably in the U.S. Army, traveled to Mexico in 1956 to join Fidel Castro, Ra\u00fal Castro, and Ernesto \u201cChe\u201d Guevara in planning the insurgency.<\/p>\n

It was on Mexican soil that Del Pino discovered the truth: the movement was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union and KGB agents.<\/p>\n

Standing firmly by democratic principles, Del Pino broke ranks with the Castro group and returned to Miami. Starting in January 1959, he became one of the most outspoken voices warning U.S. media about Castro\u2019s true totalitarian intentions.<\/p>\n

Havana\u2019s response was swift: Fidel Castro publicly declared that any enemy of the revolution would be executed, branded Del Pino a traitor, and sent undercover spies to monitor him in Florida.<\/p>\n

The kidnapping operation in Miami<\/h2>\n

Knowing Del Pino was an experienced pilot carrying out clandestine missions to get persecuted dissidents off the island, Castro\u2019s intelligence service set a deadly trap in July 1959.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spy Fidel sent was a friend of Rafael\u2019s and of Fidel\u2019s,\u201d attorney Jorge Borr\u00f3n explains, describing how vulnerable the victim was. \u201cRafael trusted him, and he told him: \u2018Look, there\u2019s a family in Cuba the government is looking for to imprison them or they were going to execute them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Deceived by this false humanitarian pretext, Del Pino took off from Florida on July 25, 1959. When he landed at 4:00 a.m. on a road outside Havana, he realized the betrayal and tried to lift the plane back up to escape. It was impossible. Military troops and the National Revolutionary Police were waiting for him in a massive ambush, opening fire with machine guns. The aircraft burst into flames, and Del Pino was dragged out of the fire severely injured and with critical burns.<\/p>\n

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A trial on a stretcher and the false promise of freedom<\/h2>\n

Barely recovered, he was subjected to a sham trial before a military court that lasted less than nine hours. Del Pino had to defend himself lying on a stretcher and dressed in pajamas. Although the prosecutor sought the death penalty, his defense attorney managed to keep him from the firing squad, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kidnapped an American citizen who was part of the armed forces here in the United States, took him to Cuba, tortured him for 17 years, and murdered him,\u201d attorney Oscar De La Rosa says, denouncing the blatant violation of international law.<\/p>\n

For nearly two decades, Del Pino endured severe isolation and constant torture at Combinado del Este prison. However, in 1977, hope seemed to knock on the family\u2019s door. There were rumors of an agreement to free a group of political prisoners and allow them to travel to the United States. Two weeks before her school graduation, Milagros and her mother were able to communicate with him. He was convinced the family reunion was imminent.<\/p>\n

Milagros remembers with deep sadness her father\u2019s hope in those final days: \u201cHe had talked to us two weeks earlier and was so hopeful that he was finally going to come to see us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The regime\u2019s response to that hope was execution. A few days later, Cuban authorities claimed Del Pino had died by suicide, by hanging. However, forensic investigations and testimony from other political prisoners confirmed in Florida courts that the Cuban government intentionally killed him, staging a suicide in his cell.<\/p>\n

The path to making dictators pay<\/h2>\n

The Del Pino family\u2019s quest for justice was first solidified in 2008, when a Miami-Dade jury returned a liability verdict against the Republic of Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, and brothers Fidel and Ra\u00fal Castro. In December 2021, Judge Maria de Jesus Santovenia formally renewed the judgment, updating the amounts with interest accrued due to the dictatorship\u2019s nonpayment. Currently, the debt totals $312.8 million for Milagros Su\u00e1rez and $313.4 million for Lissette V. Oti (granddaughter and legal successor of Rafael Del Pino Jr.).<\/p>\n

Although collecting frozen Cuban funds has been a monumental challenge due to the depletion of sovereign accounts in New York, the legal team led by attorney Francisco Rodr\u00edguez is pursuing an aggressive, unprecedented financial strategy. Taking advantage of the current political landscape and direct pressure with officials in the current administration, the attorneys are aiming to freeze alternative international assets and accounts that Venezuela\u2019s dictatorship manages directly for Cuba\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9 Palomino, also a plaintiff in the case, notes that the victim\u2019s citizenship status is the key that underpins this push: \u201cThe United States and the president do not forget and will not forget American citizens, and this individual, Rafael Del Pino, was an American citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Milagros Su\u00e1rez, seeing this case move forward decisively represents a chance to close a wound opened by geopolitics and human cruelty more than half a century ago. \u201cI have hope that one day justice will be done, that I can get justice, and that my father can rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was translated from Spanish with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool. An NBC 6 editor reviewed the translation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Del Pino family seeks more than $626 million, saying Cuba kidnapped, tortured and executed U.S. citizen and WWII veteran Rafael Del Pino Siero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miami"],"yoast_head":"\nFamily seeks $626 million over American pilot's execution in Cuba - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=789\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family seeks $626 million over American pilot's execution in Cuba - 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