05/27/2026
Colson Hicks Eidson partner Roberto Martinez was featured in the Miami Herald discussing the U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment of Raúl Castro in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft that killed four men.
Bob and the firm have spent decades leading Cuba-related human rights, anti-terrorism, and international property litigation, including the representation of the families of the Brothers to the Rescue volunteer pilots in the landmark anti-terrorism wrongful death case brought in 1996 against the Cuban government.
“It’s hard to imagine it has been 30 years since those four men were murdered in cold blood in such a monstrous way,” Bob told the Miami Herald. “The glee from the pilots and the military tower after each destruction that pulverized the men and their aircraft just puts an exclamation point on their depravity.”
The national spotlight on the indictment of Raúl Castro for the murders of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots came the day before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8–1 in favor of Havana Docks Corporation, reviving $440 million in judgments under the Helms-Burton Act, with the firm serving as lead trial counsel. The passage of the Helms-Burton Act in 1996 was prompted by the shootdown of the two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue civilian planes, an act of such barbarity that it galvanized bipartisan support.
The law firm’s work on Cuba-related human rights, anti-terrorism, and international property litigation cases has included landmark civil judgments and recoveries from frozen Cuban government assets, and has helped shape the broader context of the Helms-Burton Act jurisprudence.
Read the article here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article315821010.html?giftCode=c1663efee623c345aaae81857428243d2c85712fc93b8cd90c82fe24e7372f91.