{"id":210750,"date":"2026-05-15T12:54:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-takes-steps-to-indict-former-cuban-leader-raul-castro-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:54:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:54:46","slug":"us-takes-steps-to-indict-former-cuban-leader-raul-castro-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-takes-steps-to-indict-former-cuban-leader-raul-castro-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"US takes steps to indict former Cuban leader Ra\u00fal Castro – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The United States is moving to indict former Cuban president Rau\u0301l Castro, two sources familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
The possible charges are related to a 30-year-old case that involved the Cuban government shooting down two planes operated by a humanitarian group in 1996, the sources said. Any indictment would have to be issued by a grand jury after being presented with evidence in the case.\u00a0
News that the United States was looking to indict Castro came hours after<\/a> CIA Director John Ratcliffe led a delegation to Havana on May 14 to deliver a message from President Donald Trump<\/a> to Cuban officials and\u00a0Rau\u0301l “Raulito” Guillermo\u00a0Rodriguez Castro, who is the elder Castro’s grandson.
The potential indictment for former Cuban leader Rau\u0301l Castro, now 94, and the charges were first reported<\/a> by CBS News.
The 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue<\/a> remains one of the most politically charged episodes in modern U.S.-Cuba relations \u2013 and one in which some U.S. officials are still pressing for criminal accountability three decades later.
Those officials \u2013 mostly Republican lawmakers \u00a0\u2013 are targeting Rau\u0301l Castro, the younger brother of Fidel Castro, for his alleged role in the case.
Tensions between the United States and Cuba have focused on the incident for decades, but the potential for indictments of Cuban officials gained new momentum this year after Trump ordered a snatch-and-grab operation on Venezuela’s then-president Nicola\u0301s Maduro. Ever since, Trump has warned that Cuba is next, hinting at potential military action.
The United States has simultaneously put the squeeze on Havana through an oil blockade that’s exacerbated the communist island’s energy crisis. The Trump administration hopes the increasingly severe measures will force the Cuban regime to make vast political and societal reforms.
On Feb. 24, 1996, two planes operated by a humanitarian group were patrolling the Florida Straits looking for endangered Cuban rafters trying to reach U.S. shores when they were shot down by Cuban Air Force MiG fighter jets.
Fidel Castro claimed the planes violated Cuban airspace.
The U.S. Congress would later conclude<\/a> that Brothers to the Rescue \u201cwere flying unarmed and defenseless planes in a mission identical to hundreds they have flown since 1991 and posed no threat whatsoever to the Cuban Government, the Cuban military, or the Cuban people.\u201d
At the time, Rau\u0301l Castro was Cuba\u2019s defense minister and head of the Cuban armed forces. He has been widely viewed as the operational commander of the country\u2019s military and intelligence apparatus at the time of the shootdown.
On Feb. 13, 2026, four U.S. lawmakers, led by Rep. Mario Di\u0301az-Balart, asked Trump to indict Castro as a way of addressing \u201ca longstanding injustice<\/a> that, under your leadership, your administration is uniquely positioned to resolve once and for all.\u201d
The lawmakers said Castro was \u201cresponsible for the cold-blooded murders of three Americans and a U.S. permanent resident\u201d in the downing of the planes.
\u201cIt is our understanding, based on public information, that on February 24, 1996, Raul Castro ordered a Cuban Mig fighter jet to engage and obliterate two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft over international waters,\u201d said the letter to Trump, which was also signed by Republican Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gime\u0301nez, both of Florida, and Nicole Malliotakis, of New York.
The four lawmakers laid out a series of facts about the case, including a Time interview with Fidel Castro that they said provided significant evidence \u201cregarding Raul Castro\u2019s complicity in the crime.\u201d
Over time, the incident evolved into both a criminal prosecution and a counterintelligence effort by U.S. officials against the Cuban government and Cuban intelligence operatives in Miami, Florida.
Former President Bill Clinton implemented sweeping sanctions against the island in response to the incident. And a federal grand jury indicted<\/a> two Cuban fighter pilots and a commanding Cuban Air Force general in the murders of the four Brothers to the Rescue volunteers.
The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The United States is moving to indict former Cuban president Rau\u0301l Castro, two sources familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.The possible charges are related to a 30-year-old case that involved the Cuban government shooting down two planes operated by a humanitarian group in 1996, the sources said. Any indictment would have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-210750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}