US charges ex-Cuban president Raul Castro with murder
Court records show former Cuban president Raul Castro has been indicted on murder charges in the US; this causes a major escalation in the US pressure campaign against the island’s communist government.
The indictment against Castro, filed April 23 in federal court in Miami, charges him with one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, four counts of murder and two counts of destroying an aircraft, court records show.
There are 5 more people as defendants in the case.
The charges stem from a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles, Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche said Wednesday at an event in downtown Miami honoring the victims of the incident.
“My message today is clear: The United States and President (Donald) Trump do not and will not forget their citizens,” Blanche said to applause in a packed auditorium of government officials and Cuban Americans in Miami.
🚨 “Today, we unveil an indictment charging Raúl Castro and several others with conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens,” says @DAGToddBlanche in Miami. “My message today is clear: The United States and @POTUS have not and will not forget their citizens.” pic.twitter.com/gAlRAzbvUi— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 20, 2026
Castro, 94, last appeared in public in Cuba earlier this month, and there is no evidence that he has left the island since or that the government will allow his extradition.
The indictment comes as Trump pushes for regime change in Cuba, where Castro’s communists have been in power since his late brother Fidel Castro led the revolution in 1959.
Trump called Cuba “a rogue state harboring a hostile foreign military” in a statement earlier Wednesday.
“From the shores of Havana to the shores of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness, crime and foreign encroachment,” Trump said at a Coast Guard Academy event in New London, Connecticut.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that the island did not pose a threat.
Members of Miami’s large Cuban American community gathered in front of the city’s Freedom Tower ahead of the ceremony.
“We were all hoping for a long time, for many years, that this would happen,” said Bobby Ramirez, a 62-year-old musician who left Cuba in 1971 when he was seven years old.
The ceremony is being held on the anniversary of the end of the four-year U.S. military occupation of Cuba on May 20, 1902, following centuries of Spanish colonial rule.
The Cuban government does not take this date into consideration to celebrate the country’s independence day, claiming that it remained loyal to the United States until the 1959 revolution.
In her post about X, Diaz-Canel said that May 20 in Cuban history means “intervention, intervention, dispossession, disappointment.”
Under Trump, the United States has effectively imposed a blockade on Cuba, threatening sanctions on countries that supply it with fuel, triggering blackouts and worsening the worst crisis in decades.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered US$100 million ($140 million) in aid to Cuba earlier on Wednesday and blamed Cuban leaders for shortages of electricity, food and fuel.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called the proposal cynical, citing the “devastating impact” of the economic blockade.
