TAMPA BAY, Fla. — The U.S. Department of Justice has charged former Cuban leader Raul Castro in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that killed four people, a moment many Cuban Americans in Tampa are calling long overdue.
Three American citizens and one U.S. resident were killed when the planes were shot down over international waters in the Florida Straits.
WATCH: 'This has been a long time coming:' Tampa Bay Cuban Americans react to DOJ indictment of Raul Castro
Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, a first-generation Cuban American whose family left Cuba as exiles, said the indictment has been a long time coming.
"This has been a long time coming. It's 30 years this year. That was cold-blooded murder that happened 30 years ago," Viera said.
A monument honoring the four lives lost in the 1996 tragedy stands near Dale Mabry Highway and Columbus Drive in Tampa.
When Raul's brother, Fidel Castro, seized power more than 60 years ago, Cuba fell to communism, and the regime has ruled the island with an iron fist ever since.
"There will be no shedding of tears for the vast majority of us for Raul Castro because he is an evil man. He is a man who got where he got through oppression," Viera said.
Former City of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said in a statement:
The indictment of Raul Castro is a long-overdue step toward accountability for decades of repression, political persecution and human rights abuses against the Cuban people.
As someone who proudly stood alongside Brothers to the Rescue in the 1990s in support of a free Cuba, I have always believed the Cuban people deserve liberty, democracy and the ability to determine their own future without fear or oppression.
For generations, Cuban families have endured imprisonment, censorship and violence at the hands of the Castro regime. Today’s action sends a clear message that dictators and those responsible for crimes against their own people should never be beyond the reach of justice.
Tampa has long been home to a strong and proud Cuban-American community that understands the cost of tyranny and the value of freedom. We stand with those continuing the fight for a free and democratic Cuba.
The indictment comes as many in the Cuban American community say they have suffered greatly under the Castro regime.
"There will only be celebration for families who lost everything because of communism," Viera said.
Mercedes Soler, president of Solmart Media, a Spanish-language broadcaster in the Tampa area, was born in Cuba and fled with her family at a young age in search of opportunity, freedom, and the promise of a better life.
"Cuba is a huge tragedy for us Cubans," Soler said.
She said the indictment, while significant, does not fully address the scope of the tragedy.
"The death of the tragedy is insurmountable, and indicting a 90-plus-year-old man today doesn't even come close to rectifying the tragedy and the horrors that have befallen the Cuban people for decades," Soler said.
That tragedy drove thousands to risk their lives fleeing the country on rafts. Some made it. Others did not.
"There's been tens of thousands of Cubans that have lost their lives due to this regime, or this revolution, or this dictatorship government in Cuba," Soler said.
Soler said she does not believe the indictment alone will bring meaningful change to the island.
"That's the Cuba propaganda machine — [it] has a lot of wheels, and Cuba is still being run by Raul Castro and his family," Soler said.
Still, for many in the Cuban American community, the federal indictment represents the beginning of the end.
"It's not over yet, so all I have to say is… Ya viene llegando," Soler said
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