Madrid/Rafael del Pino’s family is trying to collect in Spain the compensation that the Cuban regime owes him, according to a US justice ruling in 2008, for killing and simulating the suicide of Fidel Castro’s former friend in his cell at the Combinado del Este in 1977.
The amount amounts to 626 million dollars, the result of the sum of 312.8 million dollars corresponding to Milagros Suárez, co-legal representative of her father’s estate, and 313.4 million for Lissette Oti, granddaughter and legal successor of Rafael del Pino Jr., son of Del Pino Siero. Initially, the amount was calculated at $253 million, but was revised upwards in 2021 due to accrued interest.
The heirs of the former Cuban pilot With American nationality, they have been aware for years that it is impossible to collect by seizing Cuban State properties in the United States, simply because they do not have enough, and they try to do it in other countries. Although a little over a month ago it was learned that they will open the Venezuelan route now that Chavismo is in a new phase of American tutelage, since 2022 the efforts have been focused on Spain, he says. this thursday the middle The Confidentialbased in Madrid.
Spain is one of the countries where the Cuban State has more potentially seizable assets
Spain is one of the countries where the Cuban State has more potentially seizable assets, they explain. Hence, the Spanish justice system has been entangled in procedures to resolve the issue for four years. The Court of First Instance number 11 of Madrid asked the Government of Spain in November 2022 to send a formal notification to Cuba that would allow the execution of these assets to be activated and in February of this year it urged the Ministry of Justice to unblock a procedure in which the Foreign Ministry also has a part and that has become complicated over time.
Thus, in March, Justice sent a request to the Foreign Ministry to notify the defendants – the representatives of the Cuban State – through diplomatic channels that the process to recognize the US ruling had begun. In May, the judge once again urged the General Subdirectorate of International Legal Cooperation of the Ministry of Justice to eliminate “obstacles” that “prevent compliance” with the process. The department claimed that it had already been done, but that it would proceed to reiterate it.
Meanwhile, in Foreign Affairs they affirm The Confidential that “as soon as he received the request, he transferred it.” According to the information, the document is already at the Spanish Embassy in Havana, but this does not guarantee that the notification has been sent, since at this point it depends on the Cuban authorities. The energy crisis has not helped to prioritize procedures like this, which are not of much interest to the regime.
Del Pino’s family in Spain told the media that, in fact, there is no evidence that Cuba has been notified, while the Embassy in Havana alleges that it is not its responsibility, but that of the Consulate General, which had not responded to the media’s questions at the time of publishing the report.
Those convicted by sentence in 2008, whom the Spanish justice system wants to notify, are the Republic of Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and Raúl Castro Ruz
Those convicted by sentence in 2008, whom the Spanish justice system wants to notify, are the Republic of Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and Raúl Castro Ruz. The Madrid Prosecutor’s Office expressed its doubts about the jurisdiction of the Spanish courts in this matter, but ended up determining that “it would correspond to the substance of the claim for recognition” and not to the jurisdiction of the body, which is why it concluded that it supported the judge’s admission to processing.
In November 2022, the judge issued an official letter and a warrant – an instrument with which a court asks an authority from another country to carry out a judicial action – to the Cuban justice system, attaching a copy of the complaint and the admission decree so that it could notify those affected of the start of the procedure and the opening of a period of 30 business days to respond.
In February 2023, the Ministry of Justice told the judge – to whom it returned the document – that in order to carry out the procedure, it had to previously request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the International Legal Advisory Office issue a report on “issues related to immunity from jurisdiction and execution”, as required by the International Legal Cooperation Law.
To comply with the rule, the court sent the documentation to the agency to make the mandatory report, but the situation dragged on for two years, and in November 2025 the magistrate demanded it again.
In November 2022, the judge issued an official letter and an order to the Cuban justice system, attaching a copy of the lawsuit and the admission decree.
The Ministry of Justice alleges that the formal request was made precisely on that date and that the corresponding secretariat signed it in just one month, on December 9, 2025. This report indicates that Cuba “could assert immunity from jurisdiction” before the Spanish judicial bodies, although it also says that, if the ruling is recognized based on international treaties, Cuban assets in Spain that are intended for “purposes other than official non-commercial ones” can be executed. This includes accounts or real estate, among other things.
Rafael del Pino Siero met Castro at the university and they became friends, to the point that the former joined the revolutionary cause as an American pilot. However, he soon distanced himself from the Revolution, which he considered too influenced by the Soviet Union.
His criticism earned him a trap from the regime, for which he arrived on the island in a small plane on July 25, 1959, to supposedly help remove the opposition’s family – an activity he was engaged in at the time – and was ambushed by the military and police. He was arrested, tried and sentenced to death, although it was commuted to 30 years in prison. He remained in the Combinado del Este for 17 years, a victim of mistreatment and isolation, until his alleged suicide, considered murder by the US courts.
