The Push to Indict Raúl Castro, Cuba’s Former President
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- In the early 1990s, many Cubans risked their lives on homemade rafts to reach the United States, prompting the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue to conduct rescue missions.
- On February 24, 1996, eight volunteers from Brothers to the Rescue took off from Miami in three Cessna planes, but only one returned.
- Cuban MiG fighter jets intercepted and shot down two of the planes in international airspace, killing four people, including three American citizens.
- The incident sparked international outrage, especially as the Cuban pilots were recorded celebrating the attack over radio communications.
- Sylvia G. Iriondo, a survivor on the third plane, condemned the attack as a heinous crime against unarmed humanitarian volunteers.