Raúl Castro, 94, Cuba’s Former president coul soon be indicted over accusations of commanding the shooting down of US planes above straight of Florida in 1996.
US officials, have confirmed the criminal indictment is being prepared and is expected to focus on the 1996 shootdown of two civilian Cessnas operated by Brothers to the Rescue.
The case has been a long-standing pillar of Cuban-American grievance.
Havana has consistently denied that the 1996 shootdown was unlawful, arguing the aircraft had repeatedly violated Cuban airspace.
The official narrative inside Cuba treats the case as a defensive act, not a war crime.
The indictment news flipped in just hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe led a US delegation to Havana on May 14, the first US government aircraft on the island, outside Guantánamo, since President Obama’s 2016 visit.
Incumbent President of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel said via X that “damage could be eased in a much simpler and faster way by lifting or relaxing the blockade,” framing the move as a contradiction to Washington’s offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid.
The Castro indictment adds a legal-prosecutorial vector to the existing economic and diplomatic squeeze.
