US Indicts Former Cuban President Raul Castro

Washington, MINA – The US Justice Department on Wednesday indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro, accusing him of ordering the shooting down of two American airliners off the coast of Cuba in 1996.

As reported by rt.com, Castro and five of his officials were charged with conspiracy to kill US citizens, aircraft destruction, and four counts of murder, one for each Cuban-American killed in the shootings.

The indictment against Castro marks the latest escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against Havana.

Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time of the incident, “participated in a conspiracy that ended with Cuban military aircraft firing missiles at those civilian planes and killing four Americans,” acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference in Miami on Wednesday.

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On February 24, 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two light aircraft which Havana said were violating its airspace. The planes – two Cessna 337 Skymasters – were operated by ‘Brothers to the Rescue’, a group of anti-communist Cubans and Americans led by CIA operative Jose Basulto. The group’s official purpose was to help dissidents to leave Cuba, and to “support the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active non-violence.”

However, one of the organization’s former pilots, Juan Pablo Roque, defected to Cuba two days before the planes were shot down and claimed that Brothers to the Rescue was involved in smuggling weapons on to the island to be used by anti-government guerillas.

In a statement on Tuesday, Cuba’s embassy in the US claimed that the organization’s aircraft committed “more than 25 serious, deliberate and systematic violations” of Cuban airspace between 1994 and 1996. With the US refusing to heed Havana’s written warnings, Cuba had “no choice but the direct defense of its borders,” the embassy added.

Ever since the incident, Basulto has pressed the US government to file criminal charges against Castro.

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There is no indication that Castro, who is now 96 years old, will ever appear in an American court. Cuba has limited diplomatic relations with the US, let alone an extradition treaty, and the Cuban government is highly unlikely to hand over Castro, a former president and revolutionary hero, to the US, where he would face the death penalty if found guilty. []

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)

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