Carlos A. Costa piloting one of the aircraft in one of his rescue missions.
On February 24, 1996, MIGs of the Cuban Air Force shot down two civil and disarmed small airplanes manned by three U.S. citizens and one U.S. resident. Carlos A. Costa; Armando Alejandre, Jr.; Mario M. de la Peña, and Pablo Morales were murdered over international waters of the Straits of Florida, while fulfilling a humanitarian search and rescue mission of raftsmen fleeing away from Cuba .
These murders were strongly reprobated by the ONU Human Rights Commission, the OAS Human Rights Interamerican Commission, and many other human rights organizations and groups, as well as many governments.
In August 2003 a Grand Jury indicted the MIG pilots and the General of the Cuban Air Force for being the direct liable agents of the murders. The U.S. judiciary system is seeking for them in order to bring them before the competent judicial authorities.
Being Sought by the FBI.
Relatives of Carlos A. Costa, Armando Alejandre and Mario de la Peña are offering a $100,000.00 reward for each apprehended individual, for information leading to the legal arrest and transfer to U.S. custody of the federal fugitives Rubén Martínez Puente, Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez and Francisco Pérez-Pérez. The three of them were indicted by the U.S. Federal Grand Jury in Miami on August 2003 and accused of the murders of Costa, Alejandre, de la Peña and Pablo Morales committed on February 24, 1996.
The Cuban Air Force pilots, namely Martínez Puente and the Pérez-Pérez brothers, shot down the two small airplanes manned by Costa, Alejandre and de la Peña, the three of them U.S. citizens, and Morales, a U.S. legal resident. The victims were flying over international waters on the Straits of Florida while in a humanitarian mission of search and rescue of raftsmen.
he victims' families also offer a $50,000 reward for every indicted individual, for credible information that brings about the indictment of any or all of the individuals involved in the conspiracy to carry out the shooting down of the aircraft. These individuals include, among others, Raúl Castro, Eduardo Delgado Rodríguez, Emilio Palacios, Ulises Rosales del Toro, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, those who were members of the Council of Ministers on February 24, 1996, and the Cuban Air Force air controllers who were on service on that date.
ll the information can be reported to the offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States or anywhere else around the globe. The authorities will use their best efforts to keep this information confidential.
MURDER OVER INTERNATIONAL WATERS
