WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Thirty years after Cuban MiG fighter jets shot down two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes over international waters, the victims’ families gathered in Miami-Dade County to honor the dead and renew their call for justice.
Dozens held a moment of silence at Florida International University on Tuesday afternoon to mark the somber anniversary.
“It’s something that will forever be etched in my mind and in my heart,” said Cuban-American activist Sylvia Iriondo.
Brothers to the Rescue was an anti-communist humanitarian organization that flew volunteer missions over the Florida Straits to locate Cuban refugees attempting to flee the island by sea. Over the years, the group is credited with saving thousands of lives.
On Feb. 24, 1996, the Cuban Air Force, under orders from the Castro regime, shot down two of the organization’s Cessna aircraft in international airspace, killing all four men aboard.
The men were reportedly looking for rafters of people escaping the dictatorship along the Florida Straits. Their bodies were never recovered.
Chilling Cuban military audio captured the moment shots were fired and the subsequent celebrations by the military men.
“First shot. We got him, damn it! We got him!” said a Cuban military official in Spanish.
The incident drew international condemnation, but no criminal charges have ever been filed against Cuban officials responsible for the order.
“In cold blood and in international waters, the Cuban Air Force fired upon unarmed civilian aircraft. No weapon, no threat, no justification,” said Michelle Mason, Interim Dean at FIU’s College of Law.
“We know who ordered it and we know who executed it. What we need is justice, is for Castro to be indicted and for all those responsible for the murder of American citizens and a legal resident of the United States, on the 24th of February 1996, to come before justice,” said Iriondo.
On Monday night, the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance held a candlelight vigil at the Cuban Memorial Monument in Tamiami Park in Southwest Miami-Dade, marking the 30th anniversary.
Mirian De La Peña, whose son Mario Manuel De La Peña was among those killed, stood before the crowd and demanded accountability.
“It is important that the criminal be indicted, and that’s what we are asking for,” she said. “That Raúl Castro, who gave the authorization to kill American citizens in international airspace, be indicted.”
Activists are pushing for the Department of Justice to indict Castro and bring him to a federal court in the United States.
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