US Indicts Former Cuban President Raúl Castro

WASHINGTON, May 21 (dpa) -- The US government has announced it is bringing a lawsuit against Cuba’s former head of state, Raúl Castro. 

According to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, the 94-year-old is accused of involvement in the shooting down of aircraft by the Cuban Air Force in 1996, in which US citizens were killed.

Castro and others are charged with the destruction of one or more aircraft and four counts of murder. 

According to the allegations, Castro, as defence minister at the time, is said to have overseen a chain of command that led to Cuban fighter jets firing on civilian aircraft over international waters. The lawsuit has been filed in a court in Florida.

Blanche said a grand jury approved the indictment back in April. He said the US expects Castro to come to the US for his trial "by his own will or by another way."

The move is likely to significantly exacerbate tensions between Washington and Havana – at a time when the US is already putting the island nation under severe pressure with threats of takeover and sanctions.

Raúl Castro served as Cuba's defence minister for almost 50 years following the victory of the revolution in 1959, before succeeding his ailing brother Fidel Castro as head of state. 

He initially took over the office of president on a provisional basis in 2006, and then officially from 2008 to 2018. After stepping down from the post, he remained at the helm of the Communist Party of Cuba until 2021.

As the younger brother of the historic revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and one of the last representatives of the revolutionary generation, he remains influential. He is regarded as a key figure operating behind the scenes in the government of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and, as a former defence minister, has excellent connections within the powerful military, which controls a large part of the country's economy.

Raúl Castro was defence minister when the Cuban Air Force shot down two aircraft belonging to the then-active, Miami-based Cuban exile organization ‘Hermanos al Rescate’ (Brothers to the Rescue) during a flight off the coast of Cuba.

According to the government in Havana, the aircraft had entered Cuban airspace at the time. The International Civil Aviation Organization, however, concluded that they were over international waters. Three of the four fatalities were US citizens – relations between the US and Cuba deteriorated significantly as a result of the incident.

Several US Congress members wrote to the US government a few months ago calling for Raúl Castro to be charged, saying he had ordered the shoot-down in his capacity as defence minister at the time.

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