Raul Castro, photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa / EPA
The United States has indicted in absentia 94-year-old former Cuban president Raul Castro and five military officers, alleging a conspiracy to murder American citizens. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the defendants could face either the death penalty or life imprisonment.
What Castro is being tried for. This concerns an episode from 1996, when Cuban fighter jets shot down two planes belonging to the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue. Four U.S. citizens were killed then. At that time, Castro was Cuba's minister of the armed forces.
Charges over the destruction of the planes and the killing of four people were brought against Castro himself and five other Cuban military officers.
What the Cuban authorities say. Raul Castro himself has not publicly commented on the prosecution by the United States. At the same time, current Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that the accusations against the former head of state have no legal basis whatsoever.
He claims that in 1996 the Cuban military acted in lawful self-defense, and that the United States is lying and manipulating the facts.
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Could Castro share Maduro's fate? U.S. prosecutors said that if Castro does not voluntarily appear in court in Miami, he may be brought by force. The New York Times writes that the United States may be preparing an operation to capture the former Cuban leader.
The White House's official account on X posted photos of Castro, captured former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, as well as the killed Iranian ayatollah Ali Khamenei and ISIS commander Abu al-Maynuki. The image bore the caption: «Враги Америки, нейтрализованные президентом Дональдом Трампом».
Could military action begin? Meanwhile, a U.S. Navy carrier strike group led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz has entered the Caribbean Sea. U.S. Southern Command noted that these forces represent the “pinnacle of combat readiness, unsurpassed strike range, as well as strategic superiority.”
According to former senior State Department official Ricardo Zuniga, the charges against Castro create a basis for military action between the United States and Cuba. At the same time, he believes that Washington will not conduct military operations in the Caribbean Sea in the near future because of its involvement in the conflict against Iran.
For now, as CNN notes, the Trump administration is trying to force Cuba into making a deal and is putting pressure on the country's leadership and its economy.
The worsening of Cuba-U.S. relations. In January, Donald Trump signed an order imposing tariffs on goods from countries supplying oil to Cuba. After that, an energy crisis began on the island.
Later, the U.S. president said that Washington could “friendly establish control over Cuba.”
The New York Times wrote that Trump is demanding the resignation of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and a number of other officials who continue to follow Fidel Castro's communist ideas.
The U.S. presidential administration is seeking reforms in Cuba, the establishment of democracy, and the release of political prisoners. In addition, the White House wants Cuba to stop cooperating with Russia and Iran.