The US Department of Justice has reported charges against the former president of Cuba, Fidel Castroʼs younger brother, 94-year-old Raul Castro, and five other Cubans.
This is stated on the website of the Ministry of Justice.
The charges stem from a 1996 incident in which Cuban military forces shot down planes during a humanitarian mission in the Florida Straits. The downed planes belonged to the Miami-based Cuban émigré volunteer group Brothers in Aid. The organization was patrolling the waters between Cuba and the Florida Keys searching for refugees. Four people on board were killed. Three of them were Americans.
According to the investigation, as early as the early 1990s, Cuban intelligence services allegedly infiltrated the organization and provided detailed information about its flights to the Cuban authorities. It was this data, prosecutors claim, that could have been used during the operation on February 24, 1996.
The indictment, which names five fighter pilots involved in the attack on the planes, in addition to Castro, builds on previous charges first filed against one of them in 2003. The updated document includes charges of conspiracy to murder US citizens, two counts of destroying planes and four counts of murder.
The NYT believes that in this way the US could prepare the ground for its military to remove Castro from the country — as they did with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the accusations a political stunt aimed solely at “justifying the absurdity of military aggression against Cuba”. He accused the United States of lying and manipulating events surrounding the downing of the planes.
On the day the new charges were filed, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recorded a message in Spanish to the Cuban people, in which he blamed the islandʼs crisis on the current elite, namely the GAESA company founded by Raul Castro.
“This company is owned and managed by the Armed Forces, and its revenues are three times the budget of your current government. Today, while you are suffering, these businessmen have assets of $18 billion and control 70% of the Cuban economy. They make profits from hotels, construction, banks, stores, and even from the money that your relatives send you from the United States — everything passes through their hands. They keep a percentage of these transfers, but none of GAESA’s profits reach you,” the video says.
He offered $100 million in humanitarian aid (food and medicine) to Cuba, but emphasized that this aid should be distributed among Cubans by the Catholic Church or other trusted charities, and not "stolen by GAESA to sell in one of its stores".
Rubio added that the United States is ready to open a new chapter in relations between the countries, and "the only thing standing in the way of a better future is those who control your country".
What is happening between Cuba and the USA?
In late January, the US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over Cuba and threatened tariffs on countries that supply it with oil. He accused Havana of collaborating with Russia, China and Iran, as well as human rights abuses and supporting anti-American forces.
In response, the Cuban government said that it was the United States that posed a threat to the island. Against the backdrop of American restrictions, Cuba faced an acute fuel crisis and large-scale blackouts, which caused disruptions in transportation, hospitals and schools, as well as public protests.
In March, Trump said the Cuban government was “soon to fall” and expressed a desire to make a deal with it. After the US tariffs, the main oil suppliers — Mexico and Venezuela — effectively stopped supplies to the island. Russia later sent oil and gas tankers to Cuba. Trump said at the time that he did not see a problem with this.
In April, a US State Department delegation visited Cuba for the first time in many years to discuss possible political and economic reforms. And in May, new protests broke out in Havana over diesel and fuel oil shortages.
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