U.S. officials say Washington is taking steps toward indicting Raúl Castro for the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue plane shootdown that killed four.
The United States is moving toward an indictment of Raúl Castro, a step that would deepen Washington’s legal and political pressure on Cuba and reopen a decades-old case tied to a deadly midair incident.
U.S.. officials familiar with the matter say the government is taking steps to indict Raúl Castro. the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of Fidel Castro. in connection with the downing of planes nearly 30 years ago.. A potential indictment would need approval by a grand jury, and a Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
Officials expect the case to focus on Cuba’s 1996 shootdown of planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue. a humanitarian group.. In February 1996, two Cessnas flown by the group were shot down by a Cuban MiG-29 fighter jet, killing four people.. The incident came to symbolize a long-running dispute between the United States and the Cuban government over sovereignty. security. and responsibility for violence.
The move also arrives as the Trump administration has escalated economic and diplomatic pressure on Havana.. The administration has threatened heavy tariffs on any country that exports oil to Cuba. a policy that it says would contribute to energy shortages as oil shipments are largely cut off.. President Trump has also pressed for major reforms in Cuba and has floated a “friendly takeover” of the country.
Pressure on Cuba picked up in January after the U.S. removed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from power and flew him to New York to face drug charges. Venezuela had been a key partner of Cuba before the operation.
Raúl Castro formally stepped down as leader of the Communist Party in 2021, but he remains widely viewed as one of Cuba’s most powerful figures. His grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as “Raulito,” is considered a point of contact between the United States and Cuba.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Raulito on Thursday after an earlier U.S.. visit last month.. A CIA official said Ratcliffe personally delivered President Trump’s message that the U.S.. is “prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues. but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.” The official added that Cuba can “no longer be a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere.”
The legal effort also aligns with a broader shift in U.S.. enforcement aimed at Cuban communist leadership.. Miami’s top federal prosecutor, several months ago, spearheaded a new initiative targeting Cuban communist leaders.. The initiative, involving federal and local law enforcement and the U.S.. Treasury Department. is pursuing prosecutions involving economic crimes. drugs. violent crimes and immigration-related violations. with a focus on targeting those in the Communist Party leadership. CBS News previously reported.
The 1996 crash has been examined and contested for years.. An Organization of American States report found the planes were shot down outside Cuban airspace and alleged that Cuba violated international law by shooting without warning and without evidence that it was necessary.. At the time. the outrage extended to the White House. with President Bill Clinton condemning the incident “in the strongest possible terms.”
Cuban officials have argued the shootdown was legitimate. They said Brothers to the Rescue had violated Cuban airspace and sought to carry out acts of sabotage on infrastructure.
Fidel Castro, before his death in 2016, told “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather that the Cuban military was acting on his “general orders” to stop planes from encroaching on the country. In that account, Fidel was the country’s leader during the incident, while Raúl led the armed forces.
In the United States, one figure connected to the broader case has already been convicted.. Gerardo Hernandez was convicted in the U.S.. of murder conspiracy related to the shootdown. after federal prosecutors alleged he was part of a spy ring aimed at passing information about Brothers to the Rescue to the Cuban intelligence service.. Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison, but he was sent to Cuba in a 2014 prisoner swap.
More recently, Florida officials have pushed for renewed legal action.. Earlier this year. Florida’s attorney general said in March that he was re-opening a shuttered state investigation into the same 1996 plane incident.. Florida Republican Sen.. Rick Scott and other Florida lawmakers have also called on the Justice Department to charge Raúl Castro and bring him to justice in the United States.
On Thursday evening, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to the CBS News report on social media, writing, “Let ‘er rip, it’s been a long time coming!”
If the Justice Department proceeds toward an indictment, the decision would still hinge on whether a grand jury approves charges.. For Cuba, any formal step to prosecute Raúl Castro would represent another front in the U.S.. campaign to pressure Havana. both legally and through economic threats. even as American officials signal they are willing to engage only if “fundamental changes” are made.
Raúl Castro indictment Brothers to the Rescue 1996 plane shootdown Cuba United States relations CIA John Ratcliffe Florida DeSantis
wait they removed maduro already?? when did that happen
94 years old and they wanna indict him lol what is he gonna do show up to court in a wheelchair. honestly feels like a waste of time but i get why families want justice i just dont see how this actually does anything.
this is all because of fidel castro and his communist regime that started back in like the 50s or 60s and raul was always the one pulling the strings behind the scenes even when fidel was alive everyone knew it. my uncle used to say raul was actually worse than fidel and more dangerous and i believe it. these planes were shot down because cuba wanted to send a message and nobody did anything about it for 30 years which is insane to me. better late than never i guess but the whole thing just shows how corrupt the whole government down there has been for decades and nothing ever really changes.
so basically trump is doing this to distract from everything else going on domestically right now like this is clearly just political and has nothing to do with actual justice for those families its been 30 years if they cared they wouldve done this a long time ago