MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Florida\u2019s attorney general said Wednesday that a state-level criminal investigation into former Cuban leader Raul Castro\u2019s role in the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated by anti-communist exiles will be reopened.<\/p>\n
Attorney General James Uthmeier said during a news conference in Miami on Wednesday that an investigation into possible crimes against Raul Castro that began several years ago was shut down by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen this came to my attention, we reactivated the files,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cSo yes, that investigation will be ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, as the 30th anniversary of the February 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes approached, several Miami Republicans, as well as Florida Sen. Rick Scott, have called on the Trump administration to reopen its criminal investigation to focus on Castro\u2019s alleged role in the incident.<\/p>\n
The renewed interest in the case is taking place against the backdrop of Trump\u2019s increasingly aggressive stance against Cuba\u2019s communist leadership in the wake of the U.S. capture of its close ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Trump on Feb. 13, lawmakers including Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez highlighted decades-old news reports indicating that Castro \u2014 the head of Cuba\u2019s military at the time \u2014 gave the order to shoot down the unarmed Cessna aircraft.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe unequivocally that Raul Castro is responsible for this heinous crime,\u201d lawmakers wrote. \u201cIt is time for him to be brought to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Uthmeier agreed that accountability is needed if crimes against Florida citizens were committed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t really say too much more at this point, but we are going to continue this investigation,\u201d he said during the news conference. \u201cI know a lot of members of the state legislature and other people here in Florida would like to see some resolution and ideally accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
His office did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment about the investigation<\/p>\n
Cuban government officials also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
To date, the U.S. has convicted only a single person of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the shootdown. Gerardo Hern\u00e1ndez, the leader of a Cuban espionage ring dismantled by the FBI in the 1990s, was sentenced to life in prison but was released by President Barack Obama during a prisoner swap in December 2014 after serving 16 years.<\/p>\n
Two fighter jet pilots and their commanding officer have also been indicted but outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement while living in Cuba.<\/p>\n
_____<\/p>\n
Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Florida\u2019s attorney general said Wednesday that a state-level criminal investigation into former Cuban leader Raul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4063,84449,28,30,29,4260,8878,84448,84450],"class_list":{"0":"post-178529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-criminal-investigation","9":"tag-cuban-leader","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-james-uthmeier","14":"tag-maria-elvira-salazar","15":"tag-raul-castro","16":"tag-shootdown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}