US brings criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro
Updated ,first published
Washington: The United States has filed murder charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, in a major escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign against the country’s communist government.
The indictment, handed down by a grand jury in Miami last month and unsealed on Wednesday (US time), charges Castro and others with four counts of murder, conspiracy to kill US citizens and destroying aircraft.
This incident relates to the 1996 incident in which two American civilian airliners operated by a group of Cuban exiles known as the Brothers to the Rescue were shot down by Cuban military jets in international waters. Four men were killed.
Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche announced the charges at a news conference in Miami attended by dignitaries, Cuban exiles and families of victims who cheered and applauded the government’s actions.
“For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leaders of the Cuban regime are being charged with acts of violence that resulted in the deaths of American citizens in this country,” he said. “Nations and their leaders cannot be allowed to target Americans, kill them, and not be held accountable.
“President Trump has committed to restoring a very simple but important principle: If you kill Americans, we will come after you, no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold, no matter how much time passes.”
The indictment states that 5 more people are defendants.
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.
When asked what steps the United States was prepared to take to bring Castro to American soil, Blanche said there were many ways to ensure that foreign nationals were brought to justice.
“How we do this depends on the circumstances of the case, I won’t go beyond that… But this is not a ‘show’ indictment. We expect him to come here voluntarily or by some other means.”
The indictment comes as Donald 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 has repeatedly said Cuba will be “next” after the military operation to kidnap then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in early January and the war in Iran that began in late February.
Maduro was taken to New York and jailed to face drug trafficking-related charges; These accusations were first leveled against him in 2020 during the first Trump administration.
Trump said this is an important day for Cuban Americans because “so many people have suffered so much.” When pressed about what he could do next to topple the regime, he downplayed the possibility of US military intervention.
“No, there won’t be tension, I don’t think there should be. The whole place is falling apart, it’s a complete mess. They’ve really lost control of Cuba,” Trump said.
He added that the United States should provide humanitarian aid, “they have no way of living, they have no food, they have no electricity, they have no energy. But they have wonderful people.”
The Trump administration imposed a naval blockade on Cuba and imposed sanctions on other countries selling fuel to Havana, leading to fuel, food and electricity shortages.
On the day the indictment was announced, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Miami-born Cuban American, sent a video message in Spanish addressing the Cuban people directly, offering them a “new Cuba” full of freedom and opportunity.
Rubio said that the United States was “ready to open a new page” in relations between the two countries and could provide $100 million in aid. The only thing standing in your way, he said, is “those who control your country.”
After Fidel Castro came to power, he allied himself with the Soviet Union and seized US-owned businesses and property. The United States has since imposed an economic embargo on the country of approximately 10 million people.
The two sides have met intermittently over the years. Diplomatic relations briefly improved during former Democratic president Barack Obama’s second term, but Trump took a tougher stance.
Cuba denounces accusations as ‘nonsense’
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said his government condemned the “absurdity” of US accusations against Raul Castro and said they were illegitimate.
“This is an action based on lies and concealing duly documented historical facts about the events that led to the fall.” [of the planes]he said.
Rodriguez called the Brothers of the Rescue, a group of Cuban exiles to whom the victims belonged, a terrorist organization and accused the Trump administration of terrorism for deadly attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the region.
Born in 1931, Raúl Castro was a key figure, along with his older brother, in the guerrilla war that toppled US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
He helped defeat the US-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and served as defense secretary for decades. He succeeded his brother as president in 2008 and resigned in 2018, but remains a powerful behind-the-scenes figure in Cuban politics.
Castro was defense minister at the time of the 1996 incident in which two small planes were shot down and four people died. The crew consisted of a group of Cuban exile pilots based in Miami who said they were looking for Cuban rafters who had escaped from the island.
The Cuban government argued that the strike was legitimate. Fidel Castro said that the Cuban military was acting according to “standing orders” to shoot down planes trespassing into Cuban airspace, and that Raúl Castro had not given a specific order to shoot.
The United States condemned the attack and imposed sanctions but did not file criminal charges against any of the Castro brothers. The Justice Department filed criminal charges against three Cuban officers in 2003, but they were never extradited.
The International Civil Aviation Organization later concluded that the incident occurred in international waters.
via Reuters
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
