Q24N — The U.S. government on Wednesday indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro on charges of murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, and destruction of an aircraft in connection with the downing of two Cuban planes in 1996.
These charges represent a further escalation of the pressure Washington is exerting on the communist island, which has been under an embargo since 1959 and is now reeling from a severe economic crisis.
Raúl Castro, now 94, was serving as Minister of Defense at the time.
A Miami judge lifted the secrecy order on the case, which for years was championed by the Cuban exile community in Florida, one of President Donald Trump’s key electoral strongholds.
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered Cubans a “new relationship” between his country and Cuba in a special video message in which he accused the island’s communist leadership of theft, corruption, and oppression.
“President Trump is offering a new relationship between the United States and Cuba, but it has to be directly with you, the Cuban people,” the Secretary of State stated.
These announcements were made on May 20, the day the Republic of Cuba was declared in 1902, following its independence from Spain and the end of the U.S. military occupation.
The island’s communist government prioritizes other dates in its historical narrative, such as the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, arguing that after 1902, the island remained under the de facto control of Washington due to the Platt Amendment.
“Intervention, interference, dispossession, frustration. That’s what May 20th means in the history of Cuba,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted on X.
Raúl Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel as president of Cuba, initiated a historic rapprochement with the United States in 2015 under the presidency of Barack Obama, which was later called into question by Trump.