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, 71, 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.
RELATED VIDEOS: Watch the speeches during Raul Castro indictment announcement at Freedom Tower
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.
Luis Zúñiga Rey was also among the Cuban exiles at the Freedom Tower who 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.
“We are happy to have this justice come into reality,” Zúñiga Rey, 78, who was born in Havana, said on Wednesday.
As a college student, Zúñiga Rey was arrested for conspiring against the regime. He was a political prisoner when he escaped in 1973 through Guantánamo during a hospitalization.
Zúñiga Rey returned to Cuba to try to help dissidents escape, and he was rearrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison. A Catholic Cardinal helped to get him expelled out of Cuba in 1988.
“Crimes against humanity never expire,” Zúñiga Rey said.
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, who was born in Havana and was also a teenage member of Alpha 66 and the Cuban Patriotic Union, serves as the spokesperson for the Cuban Democratic Directorate.
“This man who has ordered so many killings, Raul Castro, who has committed so many massacres, may finally have to face the consequences of his vicious crimes,“ said Gutiérrez-Boronat, also a member of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Carlos “JC” Bermudez was also at the Freedom Tower.
“It sends the right message not only to us, but to the opposition inside Cuba,” Bermudez said.
Madeline Pumariega, the president of the Miami Dade College, said she was glad the announcement was at the Freedom Tower.
“The Freedom Tower stands as that symbol of liberty and justice, so for this to be here at the Freedom Tower, I think means so much to our community.”
THE 1996 SHOOTDOWN
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.
Related stories
- U.S. indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro
- South Florida Republicans make case for Castro indictment
- Rubio releases message in Spanish to Cubans suffering on the island
Interactive graphic: 4 Brothers to the Rescue killed
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
