By Liv Caputo, The Florida Phoenix
The Trump administration has charged former Cuban president Raúl Castro with murder and conspiracy to kill for his alleged role in the 1996 shoot-down of two civilian rescue flights.
The Department of Justice announced the development Wednesday at Miami’s Freedom Tower — the long-standing beacon for Cuban exiles.
A warrant for the 94-year-old’s arrest has already been issued, officials said. Five others have also been charged.
“For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in this country — in the United States of America — for acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens,” said acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, revealing the indictment on Cuban Independence Day.
“Today’s indictment, while it does not bring back the murdered victims, it makes a statement,” he continued. “The United States government has not forgotten these innocent men who were shot out of the sky.”
While the indictment wasn’t unsealed until Wednesday, a Miami grand jury returned the charges against Fidel Castro’s younger brother on April 23, Blanche said. These include murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, and destruction of aircraft.
Five airmen with alleged involvement in the shootdown were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals.
The move marks a turning point in President Trump’s mounting pressure on the economically crippled island. It’s his most aggressive maneuver yet, following stark warnings that Cuba would be “next” after Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s capture, clandestine Cuban-related meetings involving Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratliffe, and reports that Cuba has amassed more than 300 military drones.
It remains unclear how the Trump administration plans to force Castro to stand trial. Blanche told reporters that he expects Castro to “show up here,” but they could also get him “another way.”
“This isn’t a show indictment,” he said. “We indict men outside of this country all the time.”
Brothers to the Rescue
The charges come two months after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a state-level criminal investigation into Castro, one of the last leaders of the 1959 Cuban revolution, the Phoenix has reported. Uthmeier joined U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody and a host of federal officials in Miami on Wednesday.
“There can be no future for a free Cuba as long as the Castros and their criminal gang of thugs remain in power,” Uthmeier declared.
The case centers on the Brothers to the Rescue flights by a 1990s Miami group that regularly scoured international waters for Cuban refugees.
But in 1996, two of their twin-engine Cessnas were shot out of the sky by Cuban MiGs, killing three Americans and one U.S. permanent resident.
Two Cuban spies who had infiltrated the nonprofit provided flight details to the Cuban government, resulting in the attack, according to CBS News. Although a U.S. federal court indicted a Cuban general and two fighter pilots for the crimes in 2003, charges were never brought against the Castros. Fidel Castro died in 2016.
South Florida lawmakers — representing the largest Cuban diaspora in the nation — have demanded a probe into Castro for decades.
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