WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Congress members from Florida added their voices to the rising chorus of calls for justice in Cuba as an agonizing anniversary of a deadly plane shootdown approaches.
Next Tuesday, Feb. 24, marks 30 years since Cuban military fighter jets shot down two, unarmed small planes in the Florida Straits, killing three American citizens and one legal U.S. resident.
“Those four individuals were murdered in cold blood,” said U.S. Rep. Díaz-Balart, R-Fla.
Those on board were working with Brothers to the Rescue, an organization flying humanitarian missions, looking for Cuban rafters fleeing the island for a chance at freedom.
None of the four men’s bodies were ever recovered.
“And now we’re talking about 30 years of zero accountability. That has to end,” said Díaz-Balart.
As the anniversary inches closer, three South Florida members of Congress are calling for the Trump administration to indict former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, saying he’s the one who gave the order.
“The person who gave the order in a premediated fashion to murder these four individuals in cold blood, 30 years ago from next Tuesday, should be indicted for murder,” said Díaz-Balart.
“Yeah, it was 30 years ago, but there is no statute of limitations, said U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, R-Fla.
Standing alongside family members of the victims in Hialeah Gardens on Thursday morning, Díaz-Balart, Giménez and U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar echoed loved ones’ calls for justice seen in a letter sent to the President Donald Trump: It reads in part:
“We respectfully request the Department of Justice consider indicting Raúl Castro, who is responsible for the cold-blooded murders…”
The parents of victim Mario de la Peña, Mario and Miriam, agree with the lawmakers.
“Yes, [Raúl Castro] is a criminal — he should be indicted,” said de la Peña’s father.
“I would like to see anybody who commits such a crime indicted and serve prison for murder,” said Miriam.
Their push Thursday also coming as news publication Axios reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is holding secret talks with Castro’s grandson.
Seen as a newer generation, Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro could help transition the island nation away from communist control and toward a more U.S. friendly position, according to the report.
“You have a 41-year-old who’s the favorite grandson who used to be the head of his security apparatus, who wants to live and consume as if he were to be in Miami,” said Salazar.
While the context of the supposed secret talks is unclear, Díaz-Balart, Giménez and Salazar expressed their support.
“If there is one person that I would want to talk to the regime, it’s Marco Rubio,” said Giménez. “President Trump is the right person leading it and the right person to negotiate it is Sec. of State Marco Rubio.”
“We are with them, and the Trump administration and Marco Rubio is at the helm,” said Salazar.
“We’re very confident that the days of that regime are numbered,” said Díaz-Balart.
Even as the three Miami lawmakers have deemed the Castro regime as illegitimate, they say this recent reports of talks is a positive step.
“Are there things that have to be negotiated? Yes, alright. They do. You have to be pragmatic about it, but that step has to be taken. We have to begin that journey even though we know there is going to be bumps along the way,” said Giménez.
Experts, however, point to recent action in Venezuela which saw Maduro deposed but his regime largely stayed in place and wonder if a similiar tactic will take place in Cuba, allowing the Cubans who lawmakers have called killers and terrorists, to face essentially no accountability.
Díaz-Balart says that may not be the case.
“The law in the United States, as the Secretary of State says, requires regime change for normalization,” said Díaz-Balart.
As for why they’d never sent the letter before, the lawmakers said that there is now political willingness that they didn’t feel they had in past years.
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