MIAMI — Ramón Saúl Sánchez was 5 when Fidel Castro took power, and 12 when he left Matanzas, Cuba, for Miami. He was a teenage member of Alpha 66, a paramilitary organization that aimed to get Castro out of power.
Sánchez was convicted of contempt of court after refusing to testify about Cuban exiles’ militant activities. After serving time in prison, he said he was committed to nonviolent resistance.
On Wednesday morning, at the Freedom Tower, where Cuban refugees arrived to ask for help in the 1960s, Sánchez said he was ready to witness history. He is expecting the U.S. Justice Department to announce the indictment of Raúl Castro there.
“It means one step closer to justice,” Sánchez said.
For decades, Cuban exiles in Miami have been calling for Castro to be brought to U.S. justice for the fatal 1996 shootdown of two Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue planes at sea.
Fidel and Raúl Castro were accused of ordering the Cuban Air Force shootdown of the two Cessna 337 Skymasters that had departed from the Opa Locka Executive Airport at about 3:20 p.m. on Feb. 24, 1996.
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.
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.
Interactive graphic: 4 Brothers to the Rescue killed
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
