WASHINGTON — The US Department of Justice has indicted ex-Cuban President Raul Castro for directing the 1996 downing of a humanitarian group’s planes by the Communist regime’s air force, The Post has learned.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and South Florida US Attorney Jason Quiñones are expected to announce the indictment at a news conference in Miami later Wednesday, according to a Trump administration official and sources familiar with the matter.
In a press release Tuesday, the DOJ noted an unspecified announcement would be made “in conjunction with a ceremony to honor the victims of the Brothers to the Rescue Murders of 1996.”
Cuba’s former President Raul Castro attends a May Day parade in Havana. REUTERSCastro, 94, is the younger brother of ex-dictator Fidel Castro, who died in 2016. Raul Castro stepped down from power in April 2018.
The attack killed four pilots, all of whom were Cuban exiles and members of the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue humanitarian group. The incident led to sanctions on Cuba by the Clinton administration and eventual charges against three Cuban military officers by the DOJ in 2003.
Raul Castro, who was serving as defense minister at the time, was not charged.
The anticipated charges come after Trump administration officials — including CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — have sought to ease tensions with Havana, even as they’ve signaled openness to taking more aggressive actions similar to the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
President Trump’s message to the Communist regime is that the US “is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,” a CIA official said last week.
Raúl Castro and Fidel Castro in military uniforms at a ceremony in Havana. REUTERSThe official added that the island nation “can no longer be a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere.”
Ratcliffe’s May 14 visit marked the first direct bilateral talks between the US and Cuba since 2016. In February, Rubio had huddled with the grandson of Raul Castro, who has served as his bodyguard and adviser, on the sidelines of a Caribbean leaders’ summit on the island of St. Kitts.
The Trump administration has been pressing for regime change in Cuba amid a de facto energy blockade due to the island’s supply of Venezuelan oil being cut off.
That’s led to power blackouts and an economic crisis with additional ill effects on services such as medical care, Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel admitted in March.
A man holds a large photograph of former Cuban President Raúl Castro during a celebration in Havana. AFP via Getty ImagesThe flow of oil stopped after US special forces arrested Maduro Jan. 3 — extraditing the strongman to American soil to face federal drug-trafficking and weapons charges.
The US has also slapped sanctions on countries and companies doing business with the island nation.
Publicly, the regime has remained defiant.
“Despite the (US) embargo, sanctions and threats of the use of force, Cuba continues on a path of sovereignty towards its socialist development,” Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a May 15 statement.
Trump has also threatened military action if the regime refuses to cooperate with the US, suggesting that American troops “may stop by” the island after Operation Epic Fury is completed in Iran.
