Former Cuban President Raul Castro speaks in the course of the Nationwide Meeting in 2018 in Havana, Cuba, after the nation was led by the primary non-Castro Cuban president since 1976.
Alexandre Meneghini/Pool/Getty Pictures
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Alexandre Meneghini/Pool/Getty Pictures
The U.S. Division of Justice has secured an indictment towards Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba, for an assault on a humanitarian group greater than 30 years in the past.
Castro and different former senior members of Cuban management are being charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of plane and 4 particular person counts of homicide, based on performing Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche. He introduced the indictment at Miami’s Freedom Tower, a historic web site that is represented a beacon of refuge for Cubans who escaped the Castro regime and made it to Florida.
The others charged are Lorenzo Alberto Perez‑Perez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raul Simanca Cardenas, and Luis Raul Gonzalez‑Pardo Rodriguez.
A grand jury in Miami introduced the indictment on April 23.
The DOJ alleges Castro was instrumental in capturing down two U.S. planes in 1996. The assault killed 4 individuals, together with three U.S. residents: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales, members of the anti-Castro activist group Brothers to the Rescue. The group flew over the waters off the Florida coast, searching for any Cuban migrants utilizing rafts and different boats to flee to the U.S.
The capturing prompted widespread condemnation amongst Cuban-Individuals and led Congress to formally codify the U.S. embargo towards Cuba, cementing sanctions that stay in impact at this time.
Castro’s indictment comes amid a possible opening of dialogue between the 2 nations; CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officers, together with Castro’s grandson, throughout a go to to the island on Might 14.
The indictment marks a uncommon U.S. transfer towards a former international head of state and comes amid a broader Trump administration strain marketing campaign towards Cuba, together with tightened sanctions on international locations supplying gasoline to the island — worsening blackouts and deepening its financial disaster.
Ratcliffe’s assembly included Inside Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the pinnacle of Cuban intelligence companies, a CIA official informed reporters on background. Intelligence cooperation, financial stability and safety points have been on the desk, the official stated.
The assembly was the highest-level diplomatic speak between the 2 international locations for the reason that U.S. launched a gasoline blockade towards Cuba, which contributed to a chronic financial disaster on the island, additionally hitting air journey and significantly disrupting meals manufacturing and the operations of hospitals and colleges. Most just lately, Cuba’s ageing energy grid has collapsed, prompting main blackouts in Havana and elsewhere.
The Cuban authorities defended their actions on the time of the incident, saying the planes have been working to undermine the Cuban authorities and that the Brothers to the Rescue group was made up of anti-Cuba terrorists. Cuba additionally argued that the planes have been shot down in its airspace, whereas the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group concluded that the planes have been shot down in worldwide airspace.
Households of the victims of the assault have lengthy sought justice for the killing of the 4 males. The federal authorities had beforehand indicted the pilots that shot down the aircrafts, however not Fidel or Raul Castro.
Cuban-American members of Congress led by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., referred to as on the Trump Justice Division earlier this 12 months to revisit the case and search an indictment of Castro within the U.S.
Fidel Castro, who led the nation from 1959 to 2008 following the Cuban Revolution, died in 2016. Raul Castro, who succeeded his brother as president of Cuba from 2008 to 2018, formally retired from the pinnacle of the nation’s Communist Celebration in 2021. Regardless of his superior age, he continues to make occasional public appearances and remains to be thought-about an influential determine within the island nation’s politics.
—NPR’s Greg Myre and Eyder Peralta contributed to this report.
