The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida indicted Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, a Cuban pilot linked to the Castro regime’s killing of four Americans in 1996, on immigration fraud charges, U.S. Attorneys Gregory W. Kehoe and Jason A. Reding Quiñones announced on Wednesday.
González-Pardo, 64, is a Cuban national who reportedly entered America on April 2024 as one of the “beneficiaries” of the Biden administration’s “humanitarian parole,” a fraud-riddled program that allowed up to 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan nationals to enter the United States and “legally” reside and work for a period of “up to two years.”
Although the parole program was allegedly intended to benefit victims of the Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan regimes, several members of the communist regime took advantage of the initiative to “legally” enter the United States following its implementation in January 2023. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) terminated the program this year.
Attorneys Kehoe and Reding Quiñones detailed that González-Pardo was charged with fraud and misuse of a visa, permits, and other documents, as well as making false statements to a federal agency. González-Pardo faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of all charges.
“This man’s past as a longtime military pilot for the evil Castro regime — which has wrought untold suffering on the Cuban people — should have been front and center in his immigration file,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “This Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute anyone who lies about their past to take advantage of America’s immigration system.”
According to the press release, on April 20, 2025, González-Pardo presented a Form I-485, seeking to obtain a U.S. Green Card. The Cuban man sought to deceive DSH and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) by submitting false information pertaining to his prior membership in the Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense force, claiming that he never received any weapons or military training and denying having ever served in the military or police. The indictment included a photograph depicting Gonzalez-Pardo in the Air Defense Force that the court shared on the press release.
Members of the Cuban diaspora denounced to Martí Noticias last year that it is “undeniable” that Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez participated in the Castro regime’s 1996 killing of four Americans who were part of Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based anti-communist charity organization.
During the 1990s balsero (“rafter”) Cuban migrant crisis, Brothers to the Rescue conducted several airplane missions to rescue U.S.-bound Cuban citizens who found themselves adrift at sea while fleeing communism. On February 26, 1996, the organization sent three planes over international waters in one such rescue mission.
The Castro regime shot down two of the three planes, killing American nationals Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales. The third plane managed to successfully escape after the Cuban planes chased it down for over an hour.
Orestes Lorenzo, a Cuban pilot who fled from communism in 1991, explained to Martí Noticias in 2024, “It was [González-Pardo’s] 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, who flew from Florida back to Cuba in 1992 to rescue his family, explained to the outlet at the time that he had given González-Pardo the “benefit of the doubt” over his participation in the attack against the planes. Martí Noticias reported at the time that Lorenzo studied in the 1970s in the former Soviet Union with González-Pardo and maintained a long-standing friendship.
Survivors of the attack that were onboard the third plane confided to Martí Noticias in September 2024 that they felt “disillusioned” after learning of González-Pardo’s presence in America. Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez’s name is part of the public list of over 1,000 known and verified Cuban repressors maintained by the non-government organization Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC).
“Last year, along with my colleagues, Carlos Gimenez and María Elvira Salazar, we alerted the Biden Administration about reports that Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez was granted the extraordinary privilege of U.S. entry,” Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) wrote on social media.
“Today, I commend the Trump Administration and law enforcement officials for holding this individual accountable for making a false statement to U.S. authorities in order to obtain permanent status in the U.S.,” he continued.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
