Reuters. Former Cuban President Raul Castro has been indicted in the United States on murder charges, U.S acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Wednesday (May 20), in a major escalation in Washington's pressure campaign against the island's government. The indictment against Castro, returned in federal court in Miami on April 23, charges him with one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft, Blanche said. Five other people are also named as defendants in the case.
On the streets of Havana, opinions were mixed but largely resistant to outside intervention.
Four U.S. Congressional representatives, all of whom were born in Cuba or whose parents were Cuban, praised the Trump administration's decision to announce criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro.
The indictment comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a regime change in Cuba, where Castro's allies have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday rejected the U.S. indictment of former president Raul Castro as a politically motivated move lacking any legal foundation. In a post on X, Diaz-Canel said the charges were designed to justify what he called a potential military attack on Cuba, dismissing the indictment as a fabrication. He accused the United States of lying and manipulating the facts surrounding the 1996 incident, describing Brothers to the Rescue as a "narco-terrorist organization."
"The alleged charges against Army General Raul Castro Ruz, which the U.S. government has just announced, only serve to highlight the arrogance and frustration felt by the representatives of the empire in the face of the Cuban Revolution’s unwavering resolve and the unity and moral strength of its leadership.
This is a political manoeuvre, without any legal basis, that seeks only to pad the dossier they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military attack on #Cuba.
The U.S. lies and manipulates the events surrounding the downing of the small planes belonging to the narco-terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996."
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States is "freeing up Cuba" and he can't say what's next for the island nation, hours after his Department of Justice indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro.
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday welcomed the indictment of former Cuban President Raul Castro on murder charges linked to the 1996 incident of two civilian aircraft operated by a Miami-based Cuban exile group. Speaking in Washington on Cuba’s Independence Day, Republican Senator Rick Scott called the indictment “a good day for America and it’s a good day for Cuba,” adding that Castro and current Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel were “not legitimate leaders.”
Cuba's government strongly denied on Wednesday allegations made by the U.S. Department of Justice against former President and revolutionary leader Raul Castro, dismissing the charges as politically motivated and legally invalid. In a statement read on Cuban state television by an anchor, the Cuban government condemned what it described as a "despicable and infamous act of political provocation," arguing that Washington "lacks the legitimacy and jurisdiction" to pursue such action.
The United States expects former Cuban President Raul Castro to appear in the country "by his own will or by another way" after he was indicted on murder charges, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters on Wednesday.
Cuban expatriates and US nationals with roots on the island shared a sense of optimism on Wednesday (May 20) following the announcement of murder charges against former Cuban President Raul Castro. At Miami's Domino Park, Cuban migrants said Castro should face trial like Nazi officers after World War Two, even if the crimes he is charged with happened 30 years ago.
Cuba's Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernandez de Cossio warned on Wednesday that any U.S. military action against Cuban officials indicted by Washington would meet "fierce resistance" from the Cuban people.
Cuban migrants in Miami are looking to the U.S. ousting of Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro with hope but also trepidation, after an indictment was issued against Cuba's former president Raul Castro. Following the indictment, on Wednesday Cubans in Miami demonstrated near the famous Cafe Versailles in Little Havana.
