MIAMI — During an event on Wednesday at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch announced there was a warrant for Raúl Castro’s arrest after an indictment.

For the fatal 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes, the indictment charged Castro, 94, with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder.

“The United States and President Trump does not and will not forget its citizens,” Blanch said during the announcement.

A Miami grand jury also indicted five co-defendants — Lorenzo Perez, Emilio Palacio, Jose Gual, Raul Simanca, and Luis Gonzalez — with charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder.

“They have been looking for this moment for 65 years,” Trump said on Wednesday about Cubans and Cuban Americans in Miami.

Castro was accused of ordering the Cuban Air Force shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue Cessna 337 Skymasters that had departed from the Opa Locka Executive Airport at about 3:20 p.m. on Feb. 24, 1996.

“The passage of time does not erase murder, it does not diminish the value of those lives, and it does not weaken our commitment to the rule of law,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said.

During their last flight, Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales were in the Cessna 337C, and Mario De La Peña and Armando Alejandre were in the Cessna 337B. Both planes were registered in the U.S., records show.

RELATED DOCUMENT: Read the 19-page indictment

“For 30 years, their families waited for answers. This FBI never forgot,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a statement released on X.

FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia, a former member of the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami Beach, was at the Freedom Tower. He said he remembers the refugee crisis and Brothers to the Rescue.

“Four humanitarians were on a noble mission to help those fleeing oppression,” Raia said.

Air-to-air missiles fired from Cuban Air Force MiG-29 fighter jets hit both planes — killing Alejandre, 45; Costa, 29; and De la Peña, 24, who were U.S. citizens; and Morales, 29, a U.S. resident, records showed.

“Both Cessna aircraft broke up in the air from the explosions of the missiles, the wreckage impacted the sea and sank,” according to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s report.

Sylvia Iriondo, who was born in Havana and lived in Miami, survived the attack and was at the Freedom Tower on Wednesday. She and her late husband were Brothers to the Rescue volunteers who were in a third Cessna that was able to get away.

“We had hoped this was coming. We have been hoping for 30 years,” Iriondo, 80, said. She added, “All of us have not wavered in our pursuit of justice. We are hearing that, and we are nearing that moment that justice will be done.”

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Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch announces Castro indictment at Freedom Tower in Miami

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