Fri, May 22, 2026 page1

• US raises pressure with Castro indictment

  • AP and AFP, MIAMI and HAVANA
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  US prosecutors on Wednesday announced criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro over the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles as the White House escalated pressure on the nation’s socialist government.

  The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the military to shoot down two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, who turns 95 next month, was Cuba’s defense minister at the time.

  The charges, which were secretly filed by a grand jury last month, included murder and destruction of an airplane. Five Cuban military pilots were also charged.

  

  A man holds a sign that reads: “Assassins and terrorists” in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday.

  Photo: EPA

  “For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” US Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Miami at a ceremony coinciding with Cuban Independence Day to honor those killed. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”

  Asked to what lengths US authorities would go to bring Castro to face charges in the US, Blanche said: “There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”

  Asked what could happen next for Cuba, US President Donald Trump said: “We’re going to see.”

  He added that the US is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”

  The Cuban government said in a statement that the 1996 shootdown was “legitimate self-defense” against an airspace violation.

  Cuban authorities called on citizens to protest the “despicable” indictment, with the official newspaper Granma urging Cubans to gather outside the US embassy in Havana today.

  Pedro Leal, a 65-year-old retiree, said Washington was hurting ordinary Cubans.

  “What the US government is doing here now, aside from the energy blockade preventing us from bringing in fuel, honestly, it’s criminal,” he said.

  A four-month US oil blockade, part of a campaign to undermine Cuba’s communist leadership, has brought the nation’s already battered economy to the brink of collapse.

  Cubans have been experiencing power outages of up to 20 hours a day and taps running dry.

  Runaway inflation has caused the price of basic goods to soar and mountains of trash have piled up on the streets of Havana.

  Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”

  Among those attending Wednesday’s ceremony in downtown Miami was Marlene Alejandre-Triana, whose father, Armando Alejandre Jr, was killed while she was away for her first year of college.

  Over the years, she spoke to multiple federal investigators about charging Castro, referring to him as “one of the main architects of the crime,” but none until now had the courage to seek justice for her family and the other victims.

  “It has been long overdue,” she said standing before a giant photograph of her father.

  Analysts were quick to draw comparisons with Venezuela, where the US government seized on a domestic indictment to justify military action in January that toppled and seized former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, a staunch ally of Cuba.

  “The idea is to say, we can do to you what we did to Nicolas Maduro,” Chatham House senior fellow for Latin America Christopher Sabatini said.

  “The military would certainly defend Cuba” in the event of US military intervention, Sabatini said.

  “Whether the people would or not, it’s difficult to say,” he added.
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