A Cuban exiles' group is at the heart of DOJ’s push to indict Raúl Castro over a 1996 shootdown

A group founded by Cuban exiles known as Brothers to the Rescue is at the center of the U.S. Justice Department's decision to seek an indictment against Cuban leader Raúl Castro, a move that would revive one of the lowest points in the bitter decades-long bilateral relationship.

One person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the potential indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated by the Miami-based exile group. Castro was defense minister at the time, making him the nation's highest authority after his brother Fidel.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Brothers to the Rescue began operating in 1980 during 125,000 Cubans' unexpected emigration to the United States. Founded by emigré José Basulto, it aimed to help Cuban refugees in the Florida straits by dropping supplies from small planes and alerting the U.S. Coast Guard.

The monthslong crisis began after some Cubans protested the travel restrictions imposed by President Fidel Castro's communist government and Castro opened the port of Mariel to anyone who wanted to leave, filling the Florida straits with desperate people.

The Clinton administration changed immigration rules to discourage Cubans from heading north on rickety, makeshift boats. Meanwhile, Brothers to the Rescue, which is also known by its Spanish name Hermanos al Rescate, continued flying toward Cuban airspace and provoking Havana.

On Feb. 24, 1996, three planes carrying members of Brothers to the Rescue entered a zone close to the 24th parallel, a short distance north of Havana and some of Cuba's highest-value targets.

Cuban fighter planes shot down two of the exiles' unarmed civilian Cessnas, killing all four men aboard. A third plane, carrying the organization’s leader, narrowly escaped.

In a story fictionalized in the movie “The Wasp Network,” U.S. counterintelligence caught five Cuban intelligence agents who had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue. Two Cuban agents served long sentences and three were only released from custody in the prisoner exchange that came before former President Barack Obama's detente with Raúl Castro.

Two Cuban fighter jet pilots and their commanding officer have also been indicted in the shootdown— but have remained outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement — while living in Cuba.

Castro has been under U.S. criminal investigation before. In 1993, federal prosecutors in Miami considered charging him and several other senior Cuban military officials with cocaine trafficking based on testimony from Colombian traffickers that emerged in the drug trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, the AP reported in 2006.

But an indictment never followed amid concerns about the witness’ credibility as well as fears that it could risk U.S. intelligence operations and derail a possible outreach to Cuba then under consideration by President Bill Clinton.

Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, D.C. contributed.

FILE - Cuba's President Raul Castro listens to the Cuban and Venezuelan national anthems during his welcome ceremony at the Miraflores presidential palace, March 17, 2015, in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

FILE - Some of the boats from the flotilla head for open waters March 2, 1996 off Key West, Fla., carrying Cuban Americans to the site of the downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes by Cuban fighters. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

FILE - A Brothers to the Rescue plane flies over The Democracy Movement flotilla at the twelve-mile limit north of Havana, Cuba, July 10, 1999. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

FILE - Former Cuban President Raul Castro looks at the Cuban flag during his speech at the event celebrating the 65th anniversary of the triumph of the revolution in Santiago, Cuba, Jan. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court acted in a Voting Rights Act case brought by Native American tribes on Monday, saying a closely watched ruling needs to be reconsidered after the high court weakened the Civil Rights-era law.

The justices ordered lower courts to take another look at the decision that went against the tribes and undercut a key enforcement mechanism: lawsuits from voters and advocacy groups.

They've been key to enforcement, bringing most of the lawsuits filed under the provision of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 2.

But in a North Dakota case brought by two Native American tribes, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that only the federal government can sue to enforce the law.

The decision conflicted with decades of case law. The Supreme Court blocked it in July, allowing the tribes’ preferred maps to temporarily stay in place.

The appeals court’s finding has nevertheless been cited elsewhere, with Mississippi making a similar argument in another appeal over its state legislative map. The court also sent that case back for reconsideration on Monday. The decision jeopardizes three new majority-Black state legislative districts, though the effects likely won't be felt until 2027, said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decisions, writing that both rulings should have been reversed.

The conservative majority, meanwhile, has already diluted enforcement power with their April decision that struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana and made future cases much harder to win.

In that case, the high court’s conservative majority ruled that map relied too heavily on race with a district aimed at giving Black voters a chance to elect a candidate of their choice. The decision effectively limited Voting Rights claims to maps that are intentionally designed to discriminate, a very high standard.

Associated Press writer Gary Fields contributed to this report.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Friday, May 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)