BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE SHOOTDOWN

THE PILOTS: Clockwise, from top left, Pablo Alfonso, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Pena and Carlos Costa.

SEE ALSO Relatives: Charges fall short Top spy planned Brothers ambush Too much Moore for Langdon Read the indictment SPECIAL REPORT: Spies among us Previous coverage

A federal grand jury in Miami indicted an alleged Cuban spy Friday on charges of conspiracy to commit murder in the 1996 shootdowns of four Brothers to the Rescue fliers.

The charge, disclosed in a revised indictment against 14 defendants in U.S. District Court in Miami, is the first time that the federal government has formally linked the fliers' deaths to Cuban agents who were rounded up in Miami by the FBI last fall.

The new allegations stop short of charging high-ranking members of Cuba's government. But it does allude to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who, in his capacity as ''commander in chief,'' is described as hailing the fliers' deaths as ''a hard blow to the Miami right.''

Providing what prosecutors say are details about how events unfolded on the Cuban side, the indictment charges that Cuba's intelligence agency actively worked to provoke a violent incident with the Brothers organization through its spies in Miami.

Symbolically, the new charges represent a breakthrough for the victims' relatives, who for three years have implored U.S. authorities to seek criminal indictments for what a Miami federal judge has called a ''murderous, terrorist act.''

''Today's news gives us hope that we can reach some justice, not only with those who are here, but with those who are in Cuba,'' said Mirta Costa, whose son, Carlos, piloted one of the doomed planes.

''It's a step in the right direction,'' agreed Miami lawyer Francisco Angones, one of several attorneys who represents families of the victims, Armando Alejandre, Costa, Mario de la Pena and Pablo Morales. Except for the relatives of Morales, who is not a U.S. citizen, the families hold a $187.5 million civil judgment against the Republic of Cuba and the Cuban Air Force.

But Brothers leader Jose Basulto said the new charges do not go far enough.

''This is just the beginning of what I've been saying all along,'' he said. ''Castro has to be indicted in the Florida courts, too.''

Defendant used alias

The indictment charges Gerardo Hernandez -- who was among those arrested on spy-related charges by the FBI last year -- with conspiracy to commit murder. Hernandez, called ''John Doe No. 1'' in the original indictment, used the alias Manuel Viramontes.

Five of the accused spies have pleaded guilty. Arrest warrants have been issued for several fugitives. A trial is scheduled for September.

The grand jury also named Juan Pablo Roque, the agent who fled the U.S. and surfaced in Havana after the shootdowns. Roque is accused of acting as a foreign agent without registering with the U.S. attorney general. While working to infiltrate the Brothers, Roque married a Miami woman, whom he left behind when he returned to Cuba. A warrant is out for his arrest.

Three others facing new charges are Luis Medina III, Ruben Campa and Albert Ruiz, all of whom are accused of using bogus names on identity documents. Medina and Campa are in custody in the spy case; Ruiz is not, and an arrest warrant has been issued.

Although he does not face new charges, accused spy Rene Gonzalez is named as a player in the events leading up to the shootdown. The indictment says Hernandez and Ruiz ordered Roque and Gonzalez to gather information on Brothers' flights.

Also named in the superseding indictment are two alleged agents who have left the U.S. -- Ricardo Villareal and Remijio Luna. They are charged with being unregistered agents of the Cuban government.

Links to Brothers incident

It remained unclear Friday how the U.S. government knows that Cuban intelligence orchestrated an airborne ambush. But after the FBI arrested the accused agents last fall, federal prosecutors moved to link what was then perceived as a ragtag ring of alleged spies to an incident that stunned the international community.

In November, sources close to the case disclosed that FBI agents spent hours debriefing the spies who pleaded guilty and who turned government informants. Moreover, FBI documents showed that investigators baited the alleged ringleader into making comments about how his ''main objective was to work against groups that continously threaten the Cuban people.''

The indictment's ambush accusation appears to be at odds with a track record of warnings by the Castro government to stop the Brothers from flying in and around the island's airspace. A multinational panel of investigators concluded that the shootdowns occurred in international waters, a conclusion that the Cuban government hotly contested.

Castro regarded the flights to be a provocation, particularly one that saw Basulto shower leaflets from a plane onto downtown Havana.

As he has in the past, Basulto, the Brothers leader, claimed Friday that the U.S. government bears responsibility for the incident by failing to warn his compatriots of the potential trouble that awaited them. Government officials deny any complicity.

One day before the Miami fliers were killed by missiles fired by Cuban MiG fighter jets, Richard Nuccio, then President Clinton's advisor on Cuba, wrote an e-mail to the White House national security deputy, Sandy Berger. He warned of a possible tragedy, not out of any knowledge of a plot, but because he had failed to persuade the Federal Aviation Administration to stop Basulto from flying.

Berger did not read the memo until after the shooting.

Operación Escorpión

According to the indictment, the Cuban Directorate of Intelligence set in motion a plan in January 1996 dubbed ''Operación Escorpión,'' which was designed to confront the Brothers in an airborne incident. The Directorate is said to have instructed its agents in Miami to collect flight information on the Brothers' planes.

In early February, the indictment says, the Directorate instructed Hernandez and Ruiz that the agents in Miami should make ''Escorpión'' a priority, and start generating flight data.

One week before the confrontation, Hernandez and Ruiz were warned by the Directorate that no agent who had infiltrated the Brothers was to fly aboard any of the group's planes between Feb. 24-27, 1996, the indictment says.

On Feb. 23, Roque departed Miami to return to Cuba.

A day later, the pilots were dead.

Suggestion of Castro's role

Although the indictment does not name any members of the Cuban government, it suggests that Castro closely monitored the operation.

Two days after the Brothers' two Cessnas plunged into the sea, the indictment says, the chief of intelligence noted that ''the commander in chief had visited twice to analyze steps to follow up on the operation; and declared that [the participants] had dealt a hard blow to the Miami right, in which their role had been decisive.''

On June 6, the indictment says, the Directorate recognized Hernandez for the role he played, and announced his promotion to captain.

Herald staff writers Elaine de Valle and Juan Tamayo contributed to this article.

e-mail: dlyons@herald.com