The Trump administration announced criminal charges against Cuba’s former president, Raúl Castro, in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Federal prosecutors said Castro ordered the attack, which killed four people including three U.S. citizens.
A grand jury in Miami secretly returned the indictment in April, and prosecutors unsealed it on Wednesday. Charges include murder and destruction of an aircraft. Castro, who stepped down as Cuba’s president in 2018 and remains a senior figure in the Communist Party, has not publicly responded to the indictment.
The charges were announced the same day the USS Nimitz carrier strike group arrived in the Caribbean. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently raised the possibility of U.S. military action against Cuba. Trump said he would likely be the president to finally intervene on the island.
Brothers to the Rescue flew search-and-rescue missions over the Florida Straits for Cuban rafters. Cuban fighter jets shot down two of its planes on Feb. 24, 1996, in international airspace. The indictment marks an escalation in the administration’s campaign of sanctions, a fuel blockade and military pressure against Havana.
The indictment was filed by a federal grand jury in Miami and includes charges of murder and destruction of an aircraft. Analysts have compared the legal and military pressure on Cuba to the administration’s January operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces separate U.S. drug trafficking charges.
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Sources:
https://www.npr.org/sections/news