Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, a Cuban pilot linked to the communist regime’s killing of four Americans in 1996, now lives in the United States thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s “humanitarian parole” program, Martí Noticias reported on Monday.
The arrival of the Cuban pilot linked to the deaths of four American citizens marks the latest known case on a growing list of Cuban communist officials and human rights violators who have entered the United States since 2023 through policies implemented by the current U.S. government.
In January 2023, the Biden-Harris administration implemented a presently active “humanitarian parole” program that allows up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans per month to request entry to the United States. U.S. authorities allow beneficiaries of the program to stay and legally work for a period of “up to two years.”
The program is intended to benefit victims of the authoritarian Castro, Maduro, and Ortega regimes and Haitian nationals fleeing from the out-of-control gang violence in their country. The program was briefly suspended in early August due to an internal investigation into rampant fraud, but was resumed towards the end of the month.
Martí Noticias, a U.S-based outlet focused on Cuba, stated that González-Pardo Rodríguez was a member of Cuba’s Anti-Aircraft Defense and Revolutionary Air Force (DAAFAR) and former director of Terminal 2 of Havana’s José Martí international Airport.
The Cuban pilot reportedly arrived in the United States on April 19 through the parole program. The outlet pointed out that, according to a U.S. government source, it is “not the first time” González-Pardo Rodríguez visits the U.S.
According to Martí Noticias, the outlet Periódico Cubano was the first to report on the arrival of the Cuban pilot to the United States, who now reportedly resides in Jacksonville, Florida, with his daughter. His wife is still in Cuba “waiting for her visa opportunity” to fly to the U.S., the reports claimed.
Orestes Lorenzo – a Cuban pilot who fled communism and escaped to Florida in 1991 before flying back to Cuba to rescue his family in 1992 — told Martí Noticias that it is “undeniable” that González-Pardo Rodríguez participated in the killing of four American citizens in 1996.
In that year, Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based anti-communist charity organization, began conducting humanitarian airplane missions to rescue Cuban citizens adrift at sea while attempting to come to America during the 1990s balsero (“rafter”) migrant crisis.
On February 26, 1996, Brothers to the Rescue sent three planes over international waters as part of its humanitarian flights. The communist Castro regime shot two of the planes down, killing four of the organization’s volunteers: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales — all four American citizens. A third plane managed to escape from the Cuban planes that chased it for more than an hour.
“It was [his] Mig 29 that chased [Brothers to the Rescue founder José] Basulto north of the 24th parallel. I know this because he confirmed it to me recently,” Lorenzo told Martí Noticias.
Lorenzo told Martí Noticias that he did not know “until recently” of González-Pardo Rodríguez’s participation in the operation against Brothers to the Rescue and claimed to have given him “the benefit of the doubt” for not being the one who shot at the planes. According to the outlet, Lorenzo studied in the 1970s in the former Soviet Union with González-Pardo Rodríguez and maintained a long-standing friendship.
“You see a target that is not armed, that does not represent a danger to Cuba, and they give you the order to shoot at that target – if you pull the trigger, you are a murderer,” Lorenzo said.
Arnaldo Iglesias, who accompanied José Basulto in the humanitarian mission and survived the attack on the planes, stressed to Martí Noticias that he felt “disillusioned” after learning of the Cuban pilot’s arrival in the United States.
“I am bothered by the impunity with which they are coming to this country. It is very sad. Since July I know he is here and nothing happens,” Iglesias said. “If he is the person who persecuted us, it is unacceptable. But who do we turn to? Who could help us? The same administration that let him in?”
Silvia Iriondo, another survivor of the attack, asked U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for explanations about the pilot’s arrival in the United States.
“He [Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez] was flying one of the two Migs dispatched by [the Castro regime] after the downing of the planes. Five months after the shoot down, the US authorities summoned us to listen to the recordings of the persecution and hunt against us,” Iglesias said. “We were saved because they were so close to Key West that the Havana tower asked them to abort.”
In brief remarks given to Martí Noticias, González-Pardo Rodríguez denied “most” of “the things that have been said” about him, but said he had not yet decided to explain to the public the facts due to “some situations that may be affected.”
Two years after the shooting of the Brothers to the Rescue planes, an investigation from U.S. authorities found that a group of Cuban communist infiltrators, commonly known as the “Cuban Five,” had penetrated the charity organization. Of five Cuban spies, only Gerardo Hernández Nordelo was convicted of “conspiracy to commit murder” for the deaths of the four American volunteers.
Hernández was released from prison by former President Barack Obama in 2014 — but not before allowing his sperm to be smuggled out of a U.S. prison and into Cuba to artificially inseminate his wife. Hernández now serves as the head of Cuban communist regime’s “Committees for the Defense of the Revolution” (CDR), an organization that conducts neighborhood espionage operations to identify and silence dissidents of the ruling communists.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
