US Charges Ex-Cuban Leader Raúl Castro in 1996 Plane Downing

The United States has charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and other crimes in connection with the downing of two civilian aircraft between Cuba and Florida in 1996.

The case, unsealed Wednesday, revives charges originally filed in 2003. It accuses Castro and five others of shooting down planes belonging to the Cuban American group Brothers to the Rescue, killing four people, including three U.S. citizens.

Castro, now 94, was head of Cuba’s armed forces at the time and faced international condemnation for the incident.

As Washington intensifies pressure on Cuba’s communist government, President Miguel Díaz-Canel dismissed the charges as a political maneuver devoid of legal foundation.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges at the Freedom Tower in Miami, stating Castro also faces charges of destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder for the deaths of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Alberto Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.

“The United States, and President Trump, does not, and will not, forget its citizens,” Blanche said.

The Justice Department’s new charges target a key figure in Cuba’s communist leadership as the country faces intense U.S. demands for political and economic reforms to its one-party system.

William LeoGrande, a Latin America politics expert at American University, said the strategy is to increase pressure until the Cuban government surrenders at the bargaining table.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions and an oil blockade on Cuba, leading to blackouts and food shortages.

Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a message to the Cuban people timed to the country’s Independence Day.

“President Trump is offering a new path between the US and a new Cuba,” Rubio said.

Rubio told Cuban citizens that GAESA, a military-run conglomerate, is primarily responsible for the blackouts and shortages. GAESA owns or operates most lucrative sectors of the Cuban economy, including ports, petrol pumps, and five-star hotels.

In response, Díaz-Canel accused the U.S. of lying and imposing collective punishment on the Cuban people.

Díaz-Canel also said the indictment of Castro is being used to justify the folly of military aggression against Cuba and accused the U.S. of distorting facts around the plane downing.

He claimed Cuba acted in legitimate self-defense within its jurisdictional waters.

Asked about the prospects of bringing Castro to the U.S. to face charges, Blanche said there is a warrant for his arrest.

“We expect he will show up here, by his own will or another way,” Blanche said.

Nearly 95, Castro remains an influential figure, acknowledged on the island as the surviving leader of the Cuban Revolution.

He has relinquished active government and party roles, but during his 2008-2018 presidency, he and former U.S. President Barack Obama oversaw a short-lived thaw in Washington-Havana relations.

Blanche said he would not compare the Castro case to that of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In January, the U.S. staged a military operation to seize Maduro and bring him to the U.S. after the Justice Department indicted him.

President Donald Trump was asked about the political aspect of the indictment.

“A lot of those people are related to me in the sense that I’ve had such a great relationship with Cuban-Americans,” Trump said. “On a humanitarian basis, we’re here to help.”

The Miami center where U.S. officials announced the indictment was full of Cuban Americans, mostly representing exile organizations that have opposed the Cuban government for decades.

Surrounded by pictures of the four victims, many at the event described being thrilled by the news.

“It was time, 67 years of that murderous regime,” said Isela Fiterre. “Raúl Castro did not merely kill four individuals. Over the course of many years, he has killed countless people.”

Fiterre said it is never too late for justice and expressed gratitude to the Trump administration.

Another attendee, Mercedes Puid-Soto, echoed those sentiments.

“I feel very happy. Justice has been served,” she said. “It’s very important that the families can close that chapter, and we Cubans too.”

Still looming over Blanche’s announcement was the question of whether the Trump administration will use the indictment similarly to the Maduro case—as justification for a military operation under law enforcement cover, said Roxanna Vigil, an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“It’s unlikely that the Cuban regime will surrender to the United States without a fight,” Vigil noted. “And any move that includes working with the Cuban regime would be very difficult for the Cuban diaspora in the United States to accept.”

U.S. and Cuban representatives, including Castro’s grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, have held conversations in recent months, but the charges are unlikely to smooth these contacts.

On the contrary, Cuba showed signs of further entrenching into its no-surrender, no-concessions position against U.S. pressure, with state media blasting what they called false accusations.