The United States is taking steps towards indicting 94-year-old former Cuban president Raúl Castro, according to media reports.
The potential indictment would focus on Cuba’s deadly 1996 downing of planes belonging to a Cuban exile group, CBS News reported on Thursday, citing U.S. officials. USA Today also linked a possible indictment to the nearly 30-year-old case, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Such an indictment would usually require approval from a grand jury. On February 24, 1996, the Cuban air force shot down two aircraft belonging to the Miami-based Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue during a flight off the Cuban coast.
Havana said the Cessna aircraft had entered Cuban airspace. However, the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, concluded that they were over international waters. Three of those killed were U.S. citizens.
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Several U.S. politicians have called for Castro to be charged. According to media reports, members of Congress accused him of ordering the shootdown while he was defence minister.
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis suggested on X that he would welcome charges against Cuba’s former leader, writing: “Let ‘er rip, it’s been a long time coming!”
Castro stepped down as president in 2018 and as head of the Communist Party in 2021 and has not been active in day-to-day politics since.
However, as the younger brother of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and one of the last figures from Cuba’s revolutionary generation, he still enjoys high standing in the country.
He is also seen as an important adviser to President Miguel Díaz-Canel and remains well-connected within Cuba’s powerful military. Relations between the U.S. and Cuba have been strained since the 1959 revolution and have deteriorated further since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office. In January 2025, Trump put the Communist Party-ruled island state back on a U.S. terrorism list.
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