Miami/The federal prosecutor of the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, one of the key figures in the United States prosecution against former Cuban ruler Raúl Castro for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996, resigned from his position this Friday without publicly explaining the reasons for his resignation.
“I presented my resignation to the president as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, effective as of today,” Quiñones wrote on the social network
Quiñones supervised the prosecution of Raúl Castro and five other Cuban soldiers involved in the downing of two civilian planes belonging to the Brothers to the Rescue organization, which occurred on February 24, 1996 in international waters. The attack caused the death of Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
The formal accusationmade public on May 20 during a ceremony at the Freedom Tower in Miami, attributes crimes of murder, conspiracy to kill US citizens and destruction of aircraft to the former Cuban president. The announcement aroused great expectation among the Cuban exile, whose representatives had been demanding responsibility for the demolition for three decades.
The prosecutor’s resignation also occurs amid internal tensions in the US Department of Justice due to another high-profile political investigation.
The judicial investigation maintains that Castro, then minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, authorized the use of lethal force against Hermanos al Rescate aircraft. The accusation also includes five Cuban soldiers: Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas and Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez.
The federal accusation was joined on October 19 by a arrest warrant issued by the Florida Justice against Raúl Castro for conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree. This is a state proceeding independent of the federal case announced in May.
The prosecutor’s resignation also occurs amid internal tensions in the US Department of Justice due to another high-profile political investigation. Quiñones was leading an investigation into an alleged conspiracy by Trump’s adversaries to prevent his coming to power through criminal and intelligence investigations. However, several prosecutors assigned to that case abandoned the case weeks ago due to internal discrepancies, while the investigations accumulated months without significant progress.
The federal procedure against Raúl Castro remains open and no changes have been announced in its processing as a result of Quiñones’ resignation
According to CNN reported this Fridayciting sources familiar with the matter, Quiñones left his position under pressure from the leadership of the Department of Justice, despite his willingness to promote some of the most controversial investigations promoted by the president.
The network noted that those responsible for the Department criticized the prosecutor for not having achieved the results he had promised in the investigation against former officials linked to the investigations into Trump and his campaign between 2016 and 2024.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly thanked Quiñones for his work and highlighted his performance in “the fight against violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and transnational crime, including the prosecution of Raúl Castro.”
Quiñones’ departure coincides with other resignations at the top of the Justice Department, including that of John Eisenberg, head of the National Security Division, and Harmeet Dhillon, who headed the Civil Rights Division.
Raúl Castro, 95, remains in Cuba despite the US accusation. The federal procedure remains open and, so far, no changes have been announced in its processing as a result of Quiñones’ resignation. The case was assigned directly to prosecutors Abbie D. Waxman and Michael E. Gilfarb, under the supervision of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
