U.S. Indicts Former Cuban Dictator Raul Castro

M.A. Dworkin

Miami, FL - As the Trump Administration ramps up pressure to oust the current Communist regime in Cuba, federal prosecutors in Florida unsealed an indictment charging former Cuban authoritarian Dictator Raul Castro and five others in connection with the Cuban military’s fatal downing of two planes, that were part of a humanitarian group, more than 30 years ago. 

The federal criminal charges against the 94-year old Castro - brother of the late strong-arm Dictator Fidel Castro - who is widely seen as one of Cuba’s most powerful figures - marks an escalation in the Trump Administration’s pressure campaign against the current Cuban government. Mr. Castro served as President of Cuba from 2008 to 2018 and as a top official of the Caribbean country’s Communist Party from 2011 to 2021.

Mr. Castro was indicted in Miami on one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. Nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft. 

The charges focus on the Cuban air force’s decision to shoot down two civilian planes flown by Florida-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue in February 1996, killing four people. The indictment says the planes were outside of Cuban airspace at the time of the shootdown.

The other five named defendants are identified as Cuban fighter pilots.

“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference announcing the indictments. “My message today is clear: The United States and President Trump, does not, and will not forget its citizens… If you kill Americans we will pursue you.”

An arrest warrant was issued for Raul Castro, but when asked whether the U.S. plans to extradite him or pull an operation similar to the one that led to the capture of Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro, AG Blanche said: “We expect he will show up here, either by his own will, or another way, and go to prison….This is not a show indictment.”

Mr. Castro’s indictment comes amid a potential opening of dialogue between the two nations; CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials, including Raul Castro’s grandson during a recent visit to Havana in mid May. It was the highest-level diplomatic talks since the U.S. launched a fuel blockade against Cuba, which has seriously disrupted food production and the operations of hospitals and schools. 

The Trump Administration has tightened sanctions against countries supplying fuel to the Communist nation, causing Cuba’s aging power grid to collapse, prompting major blackouts in Havana and other parts of the country along with deepening its economic crisis. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban parents who immigrated to Florida two years before Fidel Castro took power, and who has strongly advocated with President Trump for regime change in Cuba, spoke directly to the Cuban people, after the indictment, in a video recorded in Spanish. He criticized the country’s elite for being corrupt and offered a “new path” to the Cuban people including a $100 million influx of food and medicine.

“They profit from hotels, construction, banks, stores, and even from the money your relatives send you from the U.S., everything, everything passes through their hands,” Mr. Rubio spoke of the GAESA, a politically-connected Cuban business organization that controls 70% of the economy. “The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by the U.S. As you know better than anyone, you have been suffering from blackouts for years,” the Secretary of State went on in his address. “The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help you, the people… President Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba, where you, the ordinary Cuban, can own a gas station or a clothing store or a restaurant.”