Former Lieutenant Colonel Luis Raúl González-Pardo arrived in the United States on April 19, 2024 on humanitarian parole.
MIAMI, United States. – The Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern District of Florida announced this Wednesday the opening of a formal accusation against the Cuban Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez (64 years old) for fraud and improper use of visas, permits and other documents, as well as for making a false statement before a federal agency.
If convicted of all charges, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison, according to the official statement from the Prosecutor’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
“This man’s past as a longtime military pilot for the evil Castro regime — which has inflicted untold suffering on the Cuban people — should have been at the forefront of his immigration record,” said US Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute anyone who lies about their past to take advantage of the United States immigration system,” he added.
According to the accusation, on April 20, González-Pardo applied for permanent residence in the United States and issued false statements. The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the accused denied having received military training, participated in armed groups and served in military units, despite the fact that – according to the document – he was a member of the Cuban Air Force and Anti-Aircraft Defense Force between 1980 and 2009.
The authorities specified that this is an initial accusation and that the criminal process continues. “An indictment is simply a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty,” the statement reads.
The case is being investigated by the FBI Miami office, with support from the FBI Jacksonville office, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), and Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Miami. The investigation is carried out in coordination between the Middle and South districts of Florida.
González-Pardo arrived in the United States on April 19, 2024 with parole humanitarian.
In a Facebook post that was deleted or restricted, former Cuban pilot Orestes Lorenzo Pérez – who, in 1991, arrived in the United States in a MiG 23BN of the Cuban Air Force, of which he was older – commented that during the events of February 24, 1996, when two small planes belonging to the Hermanos al Rescate organization were shot down by Cuban pilots, González-Pardo had He had been in command of a MiG-29 that took off that day with the mission of intercepting the flights.
This Wednesday, consulted by journalist Mario Pentónresearcher Luis Domínguez, from the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC), assured that González-Pardo participated in the aforementioned events.
Following orders from the Armed Forces, commanded by Raúl Castro, González-Pardo would have closely followed the Hermanos al Rescate planes. However, according to Lorenzo Pérez, there is no confirmation that he fired at the aircraft that were in international waters.
Due to his participation in the events of February 1996, Pardo became a member the list of Cuban repressors.
“DAAFAR Lieutenant Colonel Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez was chasing the third plane of the Hermanos al Rescate (HAR) organization, crewed by José Basulto, Arnaldo Iglesias, and Sylvia and Andrés Iriondo, with his MiG-29A 911, after two others were destroyed in flight,” the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba project explained on its website.
“Since before he emigrated to this country, he was there [en la lista de represores cubanos]”Dominguez said this Wednesday. Regarding the military career attributed to González-Pardo, he listed responsibilities that, according to his story, the accused would not have revealed in the immigration form: “He forgot that he flew combat missions in Angola. He forgot that he was a MiG-21 pilot. He forgot that he was a MiG-23 pilot. (…) Twenty-nine years of his life were forgotten when he put in that document [solicitud de residencia permanente en Estados Unidos] who was never a soldier in Cuba.”
