If you are like me, then you may have been surprised last week when the United States indicted Raúl Castro on one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft.
Let me be clear: I was not surprised by the indictment. Not much surprises me anymore. The shock came from the fact that Raúl Castro is still alive. It was also confusing because it came from an incident that I didn’t remember. Historically speaking, it felt like something worth researching a bit further, and I thought I would share.
First, something about Raul, the lesser-known of the infamous Castro brothers. For all the evil they committed over the years, one thing they had going for them was good genetics. When I started teaching in Oklahoma in 2011, it was always strange teaching about Fidel Castro because everything he was famous for — the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Missile Crisis — both happened years before I was born, yet Castro was still alive while all the American presidents from the 1950s and ’60s were not. I even once questioned whether he was just a clone and the Cuban government had a room full of Fidels, bringing out a new one every time he died. That theory ended when Fidel actually died in 2016 at 90 years old.
A few years before that, in 2008, he had stepped down as president and was replaced by his brother Raul, who is currently 94. During their reign, the Castro brothers were widely criticized for imprisoning political opponents, restricting free speech, and driving many Cubans into poverty and exile.
Many Cuban families endured decades of repression, shortages, and fear under the Castro regime.
The story starts in 1991 with José Basulto, who founded Brothers to the Rescue, a humanitarian organization started by Cuban refugees trying to help the thousands of others fleeing Cuba on rafts, many of them unseaworthy. They would fly planes over the ocean and radio the Coast Guard with the locations of vessels needing rescue.
In 1995, Brothers to the Rescue adjusted its mission when President Clinton established the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy, which only allowed Cuban refugees to remain in the United States if they made it to U.S. soil. Any refugees rescued at sea were returned to Cuba.
It should also be noted that President Obama later reversed the policy, allowing for the mass deportation of illegal Cuban immigrants during his presidency.
With the new policy in place, Brothers to the Rescue stopped pointing out rafts and instead began flying over Cuba, dropping leaflets with human rights messages condemning Castro. Outraged over the messages, the Cuban government labeled Brothers to the Rescue as terrorists.
In February 1996, after the Cuban government warned the United States of consequences for future flights, three planes left Miami for Cuba. When Basulto informed Cuban air traffic control who they were, the Cuban government launched two MiG fighter jets and shot down two of the planes in international waters, killing the four men inside. The third plane, carrying Basulto, made it home safely.
As for Raúl Castro, during the incident, he served as Minister of Defense, the highest-ranking officer in the Cuban military.
In 2014, new information came to light when William LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh published their book “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana.” The book details off-the-record communication between Cuba and the Clinton administration. It explains how the administration warned Basulto to stop “taunting” the Cubans and even attempted to ground his flights.
The book also claims that Castro struck a secret deal with Congressman Bill Richardson in which he would release several political prisoners if Clinton promised to stop future flights.
Finally, last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment against Raúl Castro and several others.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding said, “For 30 years, the families of these men have waited. The Miami community has waited. Our country has waited. Today is a step toward accountability.”
The still unknown question is what happens next. It is doubtful the Cuban government will hand over Castro or the others, but after Venezuela, it is always possible that American forces could go in and grab him.
James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at james.finck@swoknews.com. Thanks to the Southwest Ledger and the Lawton Constitution for sharing his column.
