The United States plans to charge former Cuban President Raúl Castro, 94, with crimes related to the 1996 destruction of two Cuban planes, according to anonymous officials cited by CBS News.
A U.S. Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the matter, but Florida’s attorney general announced in March that the southern U.S. state would reopen its investigation into Raul Castro’s involvement in the 1996 case.
The revelations come amid heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba as the Trump administration continues to tighten punitive sanctions on the Cuban economy and threatens its leadership with changes to its political system.
Castro, the younger brother of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, served as president from 2008 to 2018. Although he is no longer head of state, Raul Castro remains an influential figure in Cuban politics. He retains the title of Army general, and his grandson Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro is known to be leading the ongoing negotiations between the United States and Cuba.
Republican lawmakers, especially those with ties to Florida’s large Cuban-American community, including Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart, have repeatedly called for Castro to be indicted. After presenting evidence, the grand jury must announce an indictment.
In February 1996, two planes belonging to the Miami-based group crashed. Brothers who came to the rescue (Brothers to the Rescue) – an activist group that helped refugees escape by boat from Cuba to the United States – was shot down by the Cuban Air Force.
The question of whether the plane was in international or Cuban airspace remains controversial.
Four people were killed in the attack, and in March 1996, the U.S. government, led by President Bill Clinton, signed the Helms-Burton Act.
The bill strengthened economic sanctions against the Cuban government and stipulated that the U.S. commercial embargo against Cuba could be lifted only after Cuba became a democracy under non-Castro leadership.
Fidel Castro was President of Cuba in 1996, but some members of the U.S. Congress have argued that Raúl, then Cuba’s defense minister, must have been responsible for ordering the plane down.
Jorge Alfonso Pita, an independent Cuban journalist living in Mexico, said: Latin America Report About the potential implications for U.S. prosecution intentions.
“I do not believe that these accusations are intended to indict Raul Castro,” Alfonso insisted. “It appears to be a gesture to appease the Cuban-American and Republican lobby so that Trump and Rubio can say, ‘We will not allow impunity’ while negotiating with El Cangrejo (Fidel Castro’s grandson) and Cuban intelligence.”
But the move to prosecute the younger Castro may not be purely symbolic. The arrest and extradition of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to the United States in January shows the Trump administration’s willingness to prosecute and bring to trial foreign leaders.
Maduro is currently facing federal charges related to ‘narco-terrorism’ while detained in New York.
Latin America Report Cuban officials were contacted for comment on possible prosecution, but they declined.
Featured Image: Former U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana during their historic visit to the island.
Image source: White House via Wikimedia Commons
patent: Creative Commons License
