Former pilot Reinaldo Martin of the American humanitarian organization “Brothers to the Rescue” has stated that he has witnessed the prosecution of several Cuban officials who shot down two of the organization’s planes in 1996, but he believes this is just the beginning.
On Wednesday, May 20, he appeared at the Freedom Tower in Miami, Florida, to attend a press conference held by the Department of Justice announcing indictments against former Cuban leader Raul Castro and others.
Castro is one of the six individuals criminally charged in the unsealed indictment. He faces charges of conspiring to murder American citizens, destroying aircraft, and murder.
In 1996, Cuban military planes attacked two American civilian aircraft belonging to the “Brothers to the Rescue” organization, resulting in the deaths of four individuals, three of whom were American.
In an interview with CNN, Martin shared that two of the victims were his friends, and he was supposed to be flying that day as well.
Recalling his deceased friends, he described them as “kind-hearted humanitarians.” Leafing through photos, he choked up, saying, “We did a lot, many good things, that’s how I remember them.”
Upon hearing the announcement of criminal charges against Castro by Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Martin exclaimed, “We finally got it!”
“We were in international waters at that time, they had no right to shoot us down,” Martin told CNN.
He expressed that Castro “should have been locked up 30 years ago.”
“It has been a hard journey because since the incident happened, we have been striving, and I feel that we are finally going to succeed,” he added.
The aircraft of the organization “Brothers to the Rescue” often flew outside Cuban airspace, distributing thousands of anti-Cuban government leaflets.
According to U.S. prosecutors, on the day of the attack on February 24, 1996, Cuban spies in Miami had provided advance information about the flight plans to the Cuban military, ensuring that their agent, a spy organization leader residing in the U.S., was not on one of the planes.
Martin emphasized that the indictment against Castro is just the beginning. He hopes the Cuban people will understand that “Brothers to the Rescue” has provided assistance there and that more changes are needed in the future.
“This conveys a message: we need to liberate Cuba, to let the Cuban people have the right to vote like us Americans, to elect the people we want, that is the way it should be. Not to live like the past 67 years,” Martin said.