{"id":682891,"date":"2026-05-20T22:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/682891\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:52:15","slug":"trump-administration-indicts-cubas-raul-castro-over-1996-plane-shootdown-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/682891\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration indicts Cuba\u2019s Raul Castro over 1996 plane shootdown | Conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

United States federal prosecutors have indicted Cuba\u2019s former President Raul Castro<\/a> in connection with the 1996 downing of planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue.<\/p>\n

The indictment<\/a>, unsealed on Wednesday, marks one of the sharpest escalations in tensions between Washington and Havana in years.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice alleges that Castro, Cuba\u2019s defence minister at the time, played a leading role in the decision to have Cuban fighter jets shoot down two civilian aircraft on February 24, 1996.<\/p>\n

It has charged Castro with one count of conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destroying an aircraft. Five co-defendants were also named in the indictment.<\/p>\n

Four people were killed in the 1996 attack, which triggered international condemnation and deepened the strains between the US and Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aFor nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,\u201d acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said as he announced the charges at Miami\u2019s Freedom Tower.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aMy message today is clear: The United States and President Trump does not and will not forget its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described the four men who were killed \u2014 Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr, Mario de la Pena, and Pablo Morales \u2014 \u200aas \u201cunarmed civilians\u201d engaged in \u201chumanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida Straits\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNations and their leaders cannot be permitted to target Americans, kill them, and not face accountability,\u201d Blanche added. \u201cIf you kill Americans, we will pursue you, no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold, and in this case, no matter how much time has passed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, also called<\/a> the indictment \u201ca major step toward accountability\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brothers to the Rescue began operating in 1991 during a wave of Cuban migration to the United States. Founded by Cuban exile Jose Basulto, the group aimed to help Cuban refugees crossing the Florida Straits by locating rafters at sea and alerting the US Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

US officials and international investigators said the planes were attacked over international waters, while Cuba maintained the aircraft had violated or approached Cuban airspace.<\/p>\n

Then-President Fidel Castro later denied that he or Raul Castro gave a direct order to shoot down the planes.<\/p>\n

After the indictment was unveiled, Cuba\u2019s current leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel, dismissed the charges as an act of political theatre.<\/p>\n

He also accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of \u201clying and manipulating the events\u201d of 1996 to make the case for military action against Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a political manoeuvre, devoid of any legal basis, aimed solely at padding the dossier they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba,\u201d Diaz-Canel wrote<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n

\"ActingActing US Attorney General Todd Blanche announces the indictment against Raul Castro [Marco Bello\/Reuters]Castro indictment raises pressure on Havana<\/p>\n

Orlando Perez, a political science professor at the University of North Texas at Dallas, told Al Jazeera that the timing of the indictment appears linked to a broader US pressure campaign against Havana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to look at the sequence of recent events,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to a visit last week from the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, to Havana.<\/p>\n

That meeting came as part of ongoing negotiations between the island\u2019s communist government and the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has pushed for leadership change in Cuba.<\/p>\n

There were also reports this month alleging Cuba had explored drone and asymmetric warfare capabilities, as Trump increases his pressure campaign against the island.<\/p>\n

According to the reports, Havana had considered possible drone attacks targeting the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, US military vessels and the nearby island of Key West, Florida, which sits roughly 140 kilometres (90 miles) from the Cuban coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington appears to be running two simultaneous tracks: a backchannel with the Castro family network, and a public pressure campaign,\u201d Perez said. \u201cA Raul Castro indictment fits within that architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez added that the move to indict Castro could backfire, stirring support among Cuba\u2019s communist base rather than weakening it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn indictment of Raul Castro strengthens those hardliners and hands them the siege narrative they\u2019ve always relied on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Castro clan is not going to turn over Raul Castro. Raul Castro is the legitimacy anchor for the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searching for an \u2018acceptable deal\u2019<\/p>\n

But Perez indicated that the Trump administration might have another motive for unveiling the indictment now.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Republican Party is facing a heated midterm election in November, and Trump\u2019s approval ratings continue to tumble.<\/p>\n

A poll from the news agency Reuters and the research firm Ipsos, published this month, showed Trump\u2019s support at its lowest level since he returned to office. Only 34 percent of respondents approved of his job performance.<\/p>\n

Perez explained that Trump\u2019s polling has suffered from public backlash to the US-Israeli war in Iran and other issues.<\/p>\n

If Wednesday\u2019s indictment pushes Cuba\u2019s government to some sort of compromise, the Trump administration could frame that outcome as a victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the circumstances that he is suffering now \u2014 in terms of his own approval ratings, which are very low, and the prospects of losing seats in the midterm elections, and the situation in Iran, which is still critical and unresolved \u2014 I think the pressure campaign is there, and they\u2019re hoping that it will lead to some sort of acceptable deal,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

But Perez added that such an outcome is likely a long shot. \u201cI don\u2019t know that that is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castro, 94, succeeded his brother Fidel Castro as Cuba\u2019s president in 2008. Although he formally stepped down from Cuba\u2019s Communist Party leadership in 2021, he is still widely seen as an influential figure within the country\u2019s political system.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.Jason Reding Quinones, the US attorney for the southern district of Florida, reflects on his family\u2019s Cuban heritage at a ceremony at Freedom Tower in Miami [Marco Bello\/Reuters]A symbolic day<\/p>\n

The indictment\u2019s unsealing was announced on a heavily symbolic day for Cubans and Cuban Americans.<\/p>\n

May 20, 1902, marks Cuba\u2019s declaration of independence and the establishment of the Cuban republic, following the Spanish-American war and a period of US military occupation.<\/p>\n

The White House issued a statement<\/a> marking the occasion and calling\u00a0the island\u2019s current communist leadership a \u201cdirect betrayal of the nation their founding patriots bled and died for\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla responded<\/a> on social media that the message was \u201csuperficial and ill-informed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s statement, he wrote, \u201cis an affront to the people of #Cuba and a reflection of the neocolonial nostalgia that persists among influential elements within that government\u201d.<\/p>\n

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos de Cossio also accused the Trump administration of catering to Cuban exiles in South Florida with its actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anti-Cuban fascist minority entrenched in Florida has finally found a government it can ride, pressure and attempt to bend to its will by blackmailing it with their votes,\u201d he posted<\/a> online.<\/p>\n

William Leogrande, a specialist in Latin American politics at American University\u2019s School of Public Affairs, acknowledged that the Trump administration\u2019s indictment against Castro would indeed be popular in South Florida, where exiled Cubans form a largely Republican base of support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe indictment of Raul Castro is a political gift from Marco Rubio and Donald Trump to Cuban Americans in South Florida,\u201d Leogrande said. \u201cIt is also likely to be the final nail in the coffin for any hope of a diplomatic agreement to end the ongoing confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negotiations, he pointed out, had been stalled between the two governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that the Trump administration is trying to lay the political groundwork for military action against Cuba,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration itself acknowledged South Florida\u2019s large Cuban community in its remarks on Wednesday, holding up their experiences as evidence of the Cuban government\u2019s violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community here \u2014 you all \u2014 understands the history of the Cuban regime better than anyone in America,\u201d Blanche told his audience at the Freedom Tower. \u201cMany families here know the cost of oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weighing military action<\/p>\n

Although the Trump administration has, for months, threatened military action against Cuba, experts warn that such an attack would likely be unpopular.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans, and even most Republicans, do not want an unnecessary war of choice in Cuba,\u201d said Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a foreign policy think tank.<\/p>\n

He questioned Trump\u2019s assertion that Cuba poses a \u201cnational security threat\u201d to the US, saying it was rather \u201ca tiny, broke and ageing island\u201d.<\/p>\n

If anything, Schlenker warned that launching such an operation could prompt blowback from Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d base, as well as undermine his efforts to restrict migration to the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven absent military action, increasingly severe secondary sanctions against the island, on top of an ongoing oil blockade, risk precipitating a major humanitarian crisis and potentially a mass migration event that will put President Trump in an unnecessary bind just months before the midterm elections,\u201d Schlenker said.<\/p>\n

As Trump\u2019s rhetoric towards Cuba grows increasingly hostile, some members of the US Congress have taken action to prevent the use of military force.<\/p>\n

In March, Democrats Ruben Gallego, Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff introduced a war powers resolution in the Senate aimed at forcing the Trump administration to seek congressional approval before any aggressive action.<\/p>\n

They renewed that effort on Wednesday, after the Castro indictment was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs if the disaster of the Iran War and the resulting spike in oil prices weren\u2019t enough, Trump is now threatening to intervene in Cuba as well,\u201d Gallego said in a statement in March. \u201cHe ran on America First, but now it\u2019s clear he\u2019s become a puppet of the war hawks in his party.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States federal prosecutors have indicted Cuba\u2019s former President Raul Castro in connection with the 1996 downing of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8721,13444,13423,1376,893,43,28461,799,44,714,250503,41,39,42,40,772,1690],"class_list":["post-682891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-conflict","tag-courts","tag-cuba","tag-donald-trump","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-investigation","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-raul-castro","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}