Former Cuban President Raúl Castro has been indicted in the United States—an escalation in President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the island’s communist government.
Castro, 94, is facing a charge of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals over the Cuban military’s shooting down two planes in the Straits of Florida that were operated by the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.
Castro, whose late brother was the communist dictator Fidel Castro, was the defense minister at the time of the planes being shot down. Prosecutors in Miami first drafted an indictment against him in the 1990s, but official charges were revealed for the first time on Wednesday.
Four Cuban-Americans in exile were killed in the attack.
“America will not tolerate a rogue state harboring hostile foreign military, intelligence, and terror operations just ninety miles from the American homeland,” Trump said Wednesday.
Among Trump’s top confidants is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Miami native born to Cuban parents who emigrated to Florida during the Castro brothers’ communist takeover. Rubio, 54, said in a video statement on Wednesday that the U.S. will provide Cubans with $100 million in aid, blaming Cuba’s leaders for shortages of electricity, food, and fuel.
Havana fired back that Rubio is “the mouthpiece of corrupt and vengeful interests.”
However, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez did not rule out accepting the much-needed aid.
“He keeps talking about an aid package of 100 million dollars that Cuba has not rejected, but whose cynicism is evident to anyone in light of the devastating effect of the economic blockade and the energy stranglehold,” Rodriguez wrote on X.
The Cuban official did not say anything about Castro’s indictment. Reached for comment, the White House referred the Daily Beast to the DOJ, which announced the indictment at a news conference in Miami, where Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke.
Blanche said a grand jury returned an indictment last month, but it was not unsealed until today.
“They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida Straits,” he said. “The United States and President Trump does not and will not forget its citizens.”
The Trump administration kidnapped the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, killing dozens from his security team, including many Cuban nationals, in January. Maduro was brought to New York City to face criminal drug trafficking charges.
It is unclear if Trump or his acolytes would plot a similar military action in Cuba. The president has hinted that he may use force against Cuba if his pressure campaign, which includes a de facto blockade of the island, does not yield regime change.
Trump has said that Cuba’s government is corrupt and went as far as threatening in March that Cuba “is next” after Venezuela. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel insisted this week that the island does not represent a threat, but added that any U.S. military action against Cuba would lead to a “bloodbath.”
Those remarks came after Axios reported on Sunday that Cuba had acquired more than 300 military drones and was holding discussions on whether it should use them to attack the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, U.S. Navy vessels at sea, or even Key West, Florida. The report cited leaked classified intelligence.
Cuban leaders have said Washington fabricated the threat to justify military intervention against the island nation.
