The United States on Wednesday announced murder charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, sharply increasing pressure on Cuba’s communist government as President Donald Trump pushes for political change on the island.
The indictment marks one of the most serious confrontations between Washington and Havana in decades and centres on the 1996 shooting down of aircraft operated by a Cuban exile group, an attack that killed four Americans.
Raúl Castro, 94, was charged with one count of conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft.
The charges also target five Cuban military fighter pilots linked to the incident, in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by the exile organisation Brothers to the Rescue.
Castro, who succeeded his late brother Fidel Castro and remained a dominant figure in Cuban politics for decades, appeared publicly in Cuba earlier this month. There is no indication he has left the country or that Havana would extradite him to the United States.
It is rare for the US government to pursue criminal charges against a foreign leader. The move reflects the Trump administration’s wider campaign to expand US influence across Latin America and isolate socialist governments in the region.
“From the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment,” Trump said at a Coast Guard Academy event in Connecticut.
Speaking at a memorial event in Miami honouring the victims of the 1996 attack, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to say whether the US military could move to arrest Castro.
“There was a warrant issued for his arrest, so we expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way,” Blanche said to applause from government officials and Cuban Americans.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel rejected the charges, describing them as politically motivated and warning against any military action.
“It is a political maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X.
He said Cuba acted lawfully in defending its territory during the 1996 incident and warned that the indictment appeared designed to justify future aggression against the island.
The charges come months after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured by US authorities on drug trafficking charges in New York. Maduro, a close ally of Havana, has pleaded not guilty.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
