MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Federal prosecutors on Wednesday\u00a0announced charges\u00a0against\u00a0former Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro\u00a0in the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles as the Trump administration escalated pressure on the socialist government.<\/p>\n
The indictment\u00a0was related to Castro\u2019s alleged role in the shootdown of two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, now 94, was Cuba’s defense minister\u00a0at the time. The charges included murder and destruction of an airplane.<\/p>\n
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and other top Justice Department officials made the announcement in Miami at a ceremony to honor those killed in the shootdown.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured the Cuban government\u2019s longtime patron, Venezuelan President\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. After ousting Maduro, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts,\u00a0food shortages\u00a0and an economic collapse across the island.<\/p>\n
Since Maduro’s capture, Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a\u00a0\u201cfriendly takeover\u201d of the country\u00a0if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s first administration indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges and used that to justify removing him from power during a surprise military raid in January that whisked the Venezuelan leader to New York to face trial.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged the Cuban people to demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart a new course in relations with the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people,\u201d Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a Spanish-language video message. \u201cCurrently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuba\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Carlos F. de Coss\u00edo lashed out at Rubio on X, saying he \u201clies so repeatedly and unscrupulously about Cuba and tries to justify the aggression he inflicts on the Cuban people.\u201d Rubio “knows full well that there is no excuse for such cruel and ruthless aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no indication Castro will be taken into U.S. custody anytime soon.<\/p>\n
He took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, D\u00edaz-Canel, in 2018.<\/p>\n
While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Ra\u00fal Guillermo Rodr\u00edguez Castro, who previously met secretly with Rubio.<\/p>\n
Last week,\u00a0CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana\u00a0for meetings with Cuban officials, including Castro\u2019s grandson. Two other\u00a0senior State Department officials\u00a0met with the grandson in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe symbolic nature is absolutely crucial,\u201d said Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman, a former prosecutor at the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Miami who handled national security cases and crimes involving Cubans.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though Ra\u00fal Castro will likely stay and die in Cuba, you can use the indictment as a pressure point, a tactical advantage, to extract other concessions like the release of prisoners or to keep Russia out,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Starting in 1995, planes flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue, a group founded by Cuban exiles, buzzed over Havana dropping leaflets urging Cubans to rise up against the Castro government.<\/p>\n
The Cubans protested to the U.S. government, warning that they would defend their airspace. Federal Aviation Administration officials also opened an investigation and met with the group\u2019s leaders to urge them to ground the flights, according to declassified government records obtained by George Washington University\u2019s National Security Archive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest overflight can only be seen as further taunting of the Cuban Government,\u201d an FAA official wrote in an email to her superiors after one intrusion in January 1996. \u201cWorst case scenario is that one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian Cessna planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba\u2019s airspace. All four men aboard were killed.<\/p>\n
Guy Lewis, who was a federal prosecutor, uncovered evidence linking senior Cuban military officials to cocaine trafficking by Colombia\u2019s Medellin cartel. Following the shootdown, the investigation expanded, and prosecutors pursued charges against Ra\u00fal Castro for leading a vast racketeering conspiracy by Cuba\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence was strong,\u201d Lewis said in an interview.<\/p>\n
In the end, the Clinton administration indicted four individuals, including the MiG pilots, the head of the Cuban air force and the head of a Cuban spy network in Miami \u2014 the only one to see the inside of a U.S. prison \u2014 for providing valuable intelligence about the flights.<\/p>\n
The incident led the U.S. to harden its position against Cuba, even though the Cold War had ended and the Castros\u2019 support for revolution across Latin America was a fading memory.<\/p>\n
But Castro himself was spared as the Clinton administration \u2014 which had quietly sought to expand relations with Cuba prior to the incident \u2014 raised foreign policy concerns about such a high-profile indictment.<\/p>\n
\u201cRa\u00fal was definitely one who slipped through the noose,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cThe crime is notorious. Three U.S. citizens and one legal permanent resident were killed in a premeditated orchestrated murder. That should never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
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