Cubans exiles’ group Brothers to the Rescue sits at the center of a U.S. Justice Department investigation that, according to a person familiar with the matter, could lead prosecutors to seek an indictment against Cuban leader Raúl Castro over the Feb. 24, 1996 shootdown of the group’s aircraft. The person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, linked the potential indictment to Castro’s alleged role as defense minister at the time. That role put him at the top of Cuba’s military hierarchy after his brother, Fidel Castro, according to the AP reporting.
Brothers to the Rescue began operating in 1980 amid an unexpected surge of Cuban emigration to the United States, with the group founded by José Basulto. The organization aimed to help Cuban refugees in the Florida straits by dropping supplies from small planes and by alerting the U.S. Coast Guard, AP reported. It is also known by its Spanish name, Hermanos al Rescate.
The months leading up to the 1996 incident were marked by escalating tensions between the exiles and Cuba’s government over travel and emigration policy. AP reported that Fidel Castro’s government had imposed travel restrictions and that Castro later opened the port of Mariel to those who wanted to leave, filling the Florida straits with large numbers of people. In response, AP said the Clinton administration changed immigration rules to discourage Cubans from attempting to reach the United States by boat.
According to AP, the dispute intensified as Brothers to the Rescue continued flying toward Cuban airspace and provoking Havana. On Feb. 24, 1996, three planes carrying members of the organization entered a zone near the 24th parallel, a short distance north of Havana and close to what AP described as some of Cuba’s higher-value targets. Cuban fighter planes shot down two of the exiles’ unarmed civilian Cessnas, killing all four men aboard. AP also reported that a third plane, carrying the organization’s leader, narrowly escaped.
The potential indictment underscores how the 1996 incident has outlasted the era that produced it, returning to the surface whenever U.S.-Cuba relations come under stress. AP said the case has previously included charges connected to Brothers to the Rescue members in a fictionalized depiction in the movie “The Wasp Network,” which involved Cuban intelligence agents who had infiltrated the group.
AP reported that five Cuban intelligence agents were caught by U.S. counterintelligence, with two serving long sentences and three later being released during a prisoner exchange that came before former President Barack Obama’s detente with Raúl Castro. AP also said two Cuban fighter jet pilots and their commanding officer have been indicted in connection with the shootdown but have remained outside U.S. law enforcement’s reach while living in Cuba.
The AP report further said Raúl Castro has been under U.S. criminal investigation before. It reported that in 1993, federal prosecutors in Miami considered charging Castro and several other senior Cuban military officials with cocaine trafficking, based on testimony from Colombian traffickers that emerged in the drug trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. AP said those prosecutors did not file an indictment amid concerns about the witness’s credibility and fears that doing so could risk U.S. intelligence operations and derail outreach to Cuba then being considered by President Bill Clinton.
This story was first published on May 18, 2026, and AP said it was updated on May 19, 2026 to correct that two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue were shot down, not four.