30 years later: Families of Brothers to the Rescue victims still seek justice

For Miriam de la Peña, the passage of time has not eased the loss of her son, Mario.

“It’s been 30 years of a constant search — a painful search for justice,” de la Peña said.

She calls the 1996 shootdown of planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue a premeditated, cold-blooded murder.

Her son, Mario de la Peña, was one of four men killed when two civilian aircraft were shot down during a humanitarian mission over the Florida Straits. The group’s flights focused on spotting Cuban rafters fleeing communism in makeshift boats and relaying their coordinates to the U.S. Coast Guard.

“Brothers to the Rescue would spot them and give the coordinates to the Coast Guard,” de la Peña said. “My son was one of them, very happy to be a volunteer pilot.”

Mario flew roughly 100 missions, helping save countless lives, she said. He was on the verge of earning his commercial piloting degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

“It’s been 30 years of much pain, some successes in court,” she said. “But the greatest success would have been to have the criminals behind bars.”

Even now, she holds on to hope.

“The general has died. One of the pilots has died. The other pilot is still alive in Cuba. They were never even sent to Interpol — their names. Not even that. That is disgusting because I think our children deserve better. They deserved a country that would stand up for them,” de la Peña said. 

Remembering the men behind the mission

For Mirta Mendez, the tragedy is deeply personal.

“He was a cute little boy,” she said of her younger brother, Carlos Costa. 

Mirta came from Cuba with her parents in 1962. Costa was born four years later. She remembers him as athletic and kind.

“He played sports, lots of them. And he was just a good kid all around.”

Costa attended Embry-Riddle with plans to pursue airport management, but began flying with Brothers to the Rescue when the organization needed pilots.

“So he started flying because they needed pilots at that time,” she said.

What began as a way to log flight hours became a humanitarian calling.

In February 1996, at 29 years old, Carlos was killed when the planes were shot down. Mirta was watching her son’s baseball game that day under clear skies. Her brother, she says, wasn’t even supposed to fly that mission.

“We went to the Coast Guard, where they were going to tell us they were going to stop the search,” she recalled. “I begged them not to. They explained that these were missiles, and that the planes were little, and that they were pulverized.”

“Time heals, but it doesn’t let you forget. It just lets you accept,” Mendez said. 

Thirty years ago in 1996, four men lost their lives after Cuban military jets shot them down while on a mission with “Brothers to the Rescue.” NBC6’s Hatzel Vela reports

For Marlene Alejandre-Triana, the loss of her father, Armando Alejandre, still resonates.

“My dad was my best friend,” she said.

Alejandre, born in Cuba, came to the United States at age 10. He later joined the Marines and served in Vietnam. At 6-foot-7, he was not a pilot and rarely went on missions. The day he died was only the second time he had flown with Brothers to the Rescue.

Marlene was attending the University of Florida when the planes were shot down. She returned to Miami the next day and was told there was nothing left to recover.

“They basically told us that the planes had been evaporated and that there was nothing to look for,” Alejandre-Triana said. 

She remembers gathering at La Ermita de la Caridad, surrounded by community members holding photos and signs.

“People that didn’t know them at all felt their loss very deeply because they believed in them and what they did,” she added. 

Thirty years after planes flown by nonprofit Brothers to the Rescue were shot down, South Florida lawmakers say they’re calling on the U.S. to indict Raúl Castro, former leader of the Cuban regime and brother of Fidel Castro.

Could charges still be filed?

Now, with renewed discussion about potentially indicting Cuban leader Raúl Castro over the incident, the families say accountability is long overdue.

“At this point, yeah, it’d be great if they could bring him and whatever he has left in life, spend it in prison,” Mendez said.

“For me, anyone who had any part in it should be held accountable,” Alejandre-Triana added. “I don’t care how old you are. Justice has to come before anything.”

De la Peña believes there is evidence tying Raúl Castro directly to the decision to shoot down the planes.

“There is hope,” she said. “There’s hope.”

Criminal defense attorney Erick Cruz says it is legally possible.

“It is certainly possible that the United States government could file an indictment against Raúl Castro,” Cruz said, noting there is no statute of limitations due to the severity of the crimes.

However, the biggest challenge would be bringing Castro to the United States to face prosecution.

There is also a 12-minute recording in which Raúl Castro can allegedly be heard discussing the planning and execution of the shootdown. But Cruz says prosecutors would need a witness to authenticate the recording.

“They would need someone to tell a jury that the recording is real and that the person speaking is Raúl Castro,” he said.

According to Cruz, the case would begin at the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, move to the Attorney General’s Office in Washington, D.C., and ultimately would likely require authorization from President Donald Trump.

Thirty years later, the families say this case is about more than politics. Americans were killed that day. But more than that — they were sons, fathers and brothers.

And their families say the community must never forget.