Florida Issues Arrest Warrant for Raúl Castro in 1996 Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown
MIAMI — A Miami-Dade judge signed a no-bond Florida state arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, 95, charging him with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the February 24, 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that killed four men, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced it at a Miami news conference on October 19.
The article lays out the warrant’s allegation that the plan ran through Cuba’s chain of command, with Castro, then defense minister, among the final decision-makers, and that conspirators on Florida soil passed flight data to Cuban authorities, which the state cites as its basis for jurisdiction.
It also notes the parallel May federal indictment of Castro and five others, the state’s plan to seek extradition if he is arrested outside Florida, and reaction from Rep. Carlos Giménez and a victim’s relative, while noting Castro has not been reported arrested.
Old Fidel Castro Interview Resurfaces in Attack Ad Against Miami Rep. María Elvira Salazar
MIAMI — Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former CBS Miami anchor, released a web ad ahead of early voting that resurfaces Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s 1995 CNN interview with Fidel Castro, contrasting it with his own 1990s confrontation in which he chased Castro down a hallway in Cuba and pressed him on political prisoners and free elections.
The article lays out Salazar’s response, that the full interview lasted an hour, she challenged Castro elsewhere and she aimed to “play it down the middle,” and her campaign’s charge that the ad “recycles old footage” and that Rodriguez takes donations from donors who favor engagement with Cuba.
It places the clash in a district that is over 70% Latino with Cuban Americans as its largest group, rated “lean Republican” with polls moving toward Democrats, and notes the fallout after Salazar said President Trump had “gone too far” on immigration and he called her a “back stabber.”
Miami-Dade Early Voting — 2026 Midterms: Will Immigration Hurt GOP in South Florida?
MIAMI-DADE — As of Friday afternoon, Miami-Dade voters had returned 204,369 early and mail ballots, with Democrats at 40.5% to Republicans’ 34.1% and no-party voters at 23.6%, a lead of 13,076 ballots (6.4 points) that has since narrowed from nearly 10 points on October 20.
Republicans out-register Democrats in the county by about 3.5 points and are gaining ground on Democrats.
Will the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown impact Republican turnout?
Hispanic voters are about 62% of the county’s 1.3 million registrants and Republicans are three-quarters Hispanic, but the state publishes no race, ethnicity or vote-choice data for early voters, and mail-versus-in-person habits shift the party mix over time.
Historically, Republicans overwhelm early Democrat turnout on Election Day — and with a share of the Latino vote, Republican wins can suggest that the immigration impact was overstated by Democrat opposition.
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