Florida Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart (R), Carlos Giménez (R), and María Elvira Salazar (R), joined by Florida Senator Ashley Moody (R), commemorate and honor the victims of the 1996 shootdown of two “Brothers to the Rescue” aircraft by Cuban officials during an event this week.
The Representatives, joined by family members of the victims who perished as well as leaders of the Cuban American exile community honored the memory and demanded accountability for the lives of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos A. Costa, Mario M. de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, three American citizens and one legal U.S. resident who died when Raúl Castro targeted and ordered Cuban fighter jets to shoot down the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft over international waters.
“Thirty years ago, Raúl Castro carried out a brutal attack that murdered innocent Americans whose only mission was to save lives,” Rep. Díaz-Balart said in a press conference. “We gather not only to honor their memory, but to reaffirm that crimes against Americans cannot be ignored, excused, or forgotten. There must be accountability for those responsible.”
Díaz-Balart continued, commending President Donald Trump for his recent campaign of stifling the Cuban economy, placing maximum pressure on the already weakened regime.
On February 24, 1996, two of the Brothers to the Rescue Cessna 337 Skymaster civilian aircraft were shot down by a Cuban Air Force MiG-29, while a third aircraft, flown by José Basulto, managed to escape.
The Cuban government claimed that the group used "planes previously employed in the wars in Vietnam and El Salvador, given to them by the U.S. Air Force, from which the "USAF" signs have not been completely erased."
The U.S. Air Force had previously used a military version of the Cessna 337, the Cessna O-2 Skymaster, but that aircraft had been retired in the late 1980s from military service.
“For 67 years, the Cuban people, in Miami and on the island, have lived through repression and exile under the Castro regime,” Rep. Salazar remarked. “As we mark the anniversary of the shooting down of two unarmed civilian planes and the killing of three U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident, we remember a crime that for decades went unanswered.”
“Today, we reaffirmed a simple truth: justice delayed is justice denied," Rep. Giménez spoke. "Nearly three decades after the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, the Castro regime has never been held accountable for the cold-blooded murder of Americans carrying out a humanitarian mission.
Last week, the Florida politicians, along with New York Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, sent a letter to President Trump asking that his administration consider indicting Raúl Castro for his involvement in the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft shootdown, demanding accountability from the Cuban regime.
