Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro on Wednesday in the 1996 downing of two civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles, as the Trump administration escalated pressure on Cuba. The announcement came in Miami, where acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke at a ceremony that coincided with Cuban independence day and marked the latest U.S. effort to seek accountability for Americans killed in the shootdown.
Blanche said the indictment addressed a case that had taken decades to reach court, telling those gathered that families of four “murdered Americans have waited for justice” for “nearly 30 years.” He described the victims as “unarmed civilians” who were flying what he called humanitarian missions for people “fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”
The prosecutors said the indictment accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of two small planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, an exile group. Castro, who is scheduled to turn 95 next month and was Cuba’s defense minister in 1996, was charged with murder and destruction of an airplane in connection with the 1996 killings, and prosecutors also brought charges against five Cuban military pilots.
In remarks following the announcement, Blanche said American authorities have issued a warrant for Castro’s arrest and that prosecutors therefore expect he will appear in the United States. When asked about what could happen next for Cuba, President Donald Trump said, “We’re going to see,” adding that the United States was ready to provide humanitarian assistance to what he called a “failing nation.”
Cuba’s government immediately rejected the U.S. action. President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt, saying it sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba,” according to his message on social media. Díaz-Canel also accused the United States of lying and manipulating events around the shootdown, including by ignoring what Cuban officials had warned at the time about defending against “dangerous violations” of Cuban airspace “by notorious terrorists.”
Among those attending the Miami ceremony was Marlene Alejandre-Triana, whose father, Armando Alejandre Jr, was killed while she was away for her first year of college. Over the years, she said she spoke with multiple federal investigators about pursuing charges and described Castro as “one of the main architects of the crime,” but said it took until now for prosecutors to seek justice for her family and the other victims. “It has been long overdue,” Alejandre-Triana said, standing before a large photo of her father.
The indictment arrives amid heightened U.S. pressure on Cuba that administration officials have tied to broader efforts to confront the Cuban leadership, and observers said it could also test whether American prosecutors can bring senior Cuban officials into U.S. court. The case has long been linked to the 1990s investigation into the Brothers to the Rescue flights, including how U.S. federal authorities expanded their inquiry following the Feb. 24, 1996 downing of two unarmed civilian Cessna planes near Havana and the deaths of all four men aboard.
The Associated Press report said Cuba’s broader security and diplomatic context has shifted since the Trump administration captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January and then used U.S. criminal cases to remove him from power. Observers cited that sequence as a sign the U.S. is prepared to pursue senior leaders beyond the region, with Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive at George Washington University saying Castro “is going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on.”
U.S. pressure on Cuba has also increased since the Maduro capture, with the White House ordering a blockade after ousting the Venezuelan leader that cut off fuel shipments and contributed to blackouts and food shortages, according to the AP report. Trump has said he has threatened military action for months and, earlier this year, pledged to carry out a “friendly takeover” if Cuba did not open its economy to American investment and remove U.S. adversaries. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in a Spanish-language video message on Wednesday, urged Cubans to demand a free-market economy with new leadership and said that in the United States officials were ready to open a new chapter in relations between the people.
Prosecutors said the case against Castro stretches back to the 1990s. Brothers to the Rescue flights in 1995 prompted concerns in the United States, and the report said the Federal Aviation Administration opened an investigation and met with leaders to urge them to ground the flights, citing declassified records obtained by the National Security Archive. Despite those warnings, U.S. and Cuban accounts align on the key event: on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian planes near Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace, killing four men and leaving a third plane—carrying the group’s leader—escaping.
Prosecutors said Castro had previously faced other indictment attempts tied to the aftermath of the shootdown. The AP report said Guy Lewis, a federal prosecutor in Miami in the 1990s, uncovered evidence tying senior Cuban military officials to cocaine trafficking and that the investigation later expanded to pursue charges against Castro for leading a racketeering conspiracy by Cuba’s armed forces. It said that earlier cases resulted in indictments for some air force leaders and pilots but that those defendants have never been apprehended, and that a fourth individual was convicted in a Miami-based spy ring before the person was later swapped for a U.S. intelligence asset imprisoned in Cuba under President Barack Obama’s outreach.
The AP report also said U.S. officials considered how far to push earlier efforts to indict Castro, noting that the Clinton administration raised concerns about the high-profile nature of an indictment at the time when it ultimately left Castro spared. Wednesday’s charges place new emphasis on the same question—whether a senior Cuban figure will ever face a U.S. criminal proceeding—while the Cuban government continues to say the U.S. pursuit is politically motivated and tied to the possibility of military aggression.