The Donald Trump administration on the 20th (local time) indicted former Cuban Council of State President Raúl Castro on charges of murder and conspiracy in connection with the 1996 downing of a civilian aircraft. At the same time, it offered to provide $100 million (about 150 billion won) worth of food and medicine to the Cuban people. The dual-track approach is seen as putting the Cuban regime on criminal trial by challenging its historical legitimacy, while the United States positions itself as a direct relief provider to Cubans suffering from power shortages and food shortages.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in Miami, Florida, that it had indicted Raúl and five Cuban regime officials on charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, two counts of destroying an aircraft, and four counts of murder. A federal grand jury in Miami prepared a sealed indictment in late April and unsealed it on this day to coincide with Cuba's Independence Day.
At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio proposed a humanitarian aid plan for the Cuban people in a video message in Spanish. He added the condition that the aid supplies must be distributed directly through the Catholic Church or trusted charities without going through the Cuban government.
The United States cited the Feb. 24, 1996, downing of a civilian aircraft belonging to Brothers to the Rescue as the reason for indicting Raúl Castro. The group is an association of Cuban exiles based in Miami, Florida, that mainly searched for and rescued Cuban refugees near the Florida Straits. On the day of the incident 30 years ago, two unarmed propeller planes belonging to the group were hit by air-to-air missiles fired by Cuban Air Force MiG fighters and crashed. Four U.S. citizens ages 24 to 45, including Carlos Costa, were killed, and their bodies were never recovered.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated in the indictment that the shootdowns occurred over international waters, not Cuban territorial waters, and that Raúl, then defense minister, directly ordered the use of force. According to a June 1996 recording released by the U.S. government in 2006, Raúl is heard instructing the Cuban Air Force to "knock them down into the sea when they show up." In 1999, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) described the incident as "a disproportionate and indiscriminate lethal use of force against a civilian aircraft." Under the charges of murder and conspiracy to murder listed in the indictment, the maximum sentence allowed by law in a U.S. court is death or life imprisonment.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the Miami announcement, "An arrest warrant has been issued for Castro," adding, "Whether he comes voluntarily or in some other way, he will show up here." As for why the announcement was made in Miami rather than Washington, Blanche said, "This community knows the history of the Cuban regime better than any other part of the United States."
Raúl is not merely a former Cuban leader. He is a representative figure of the first generation of revolutionaries who, with his brother Fidel Castro in 1959, toppled the pro-U.S. Batista regime. He controlled the military for decades as defense minister and served as Cuba's top leader from 2008 to 2018 after his brother stepped down. Until 2021, he was the first secretary of the Communist Party, controlling the party. He is a living symbol of the Castro system, having held power across the military, party, and state.
International relations experts said the indictment goes beyond challenging current government policy and signals an intent to hold the legitimacy of the Castro system, which has lasted more than 60 years since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, criminally accountable. As with former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested in his country in January and is in U.S. custody, it means dragging a symbol of the Cuban Revolution into the U.S. justice system as a criminal defendant.
Peter Kornbluh, a U.S.-Cuba relations expert at the National Security Archive, told AP, "Cuba's leadership has no choice but to take this threat extremely seriously," adding, "Raúl will have to keep his head very low from now on."
Cuba is currently undergoing its worst-ever economic crisis. U.S. sanctions have cut off fuel supplies, making 20 to 22 hours of daily blackouts routine in major parts of the capital, Havana. Even the Cuban energy minister publicly acknowledged that there are no remaining reserves of diesel or fuel oil. Food and medicine have also run out.
Minister Rubio said in the video, "The real reason there is no electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control Cuba have looted billions of dollars," placing responsibility for the country's collapse on the corrupt Cuban regime. He continued, "There is no reason the Cuban people cannot enjoy freedom like other countries in the Caribbean. This is not impossible," calling for a new system.
The day marks the Independence Day when the Republic of Cuba officially launched in 1902, ending U.S. military rule. As a price for ending U.S. military rule, Cuba had to include the Platt Amendment—granting the United States the authority to intervene in Cuba militarily at any time and leasing the Guantánamo naval base permanently—as a constitutional provision. Although freed from Spain, it was close to a half independence that legalized U.S. interference. The Fidel Castro revolutionary regime struck this day from the official national holidays in 1959, declaring that "true independence began in 1959 when U.S. influence was cut off." The Trump administration deliberately chose the "other Independence Day," which the Castro system has denied, to elevate the day's significance.
The announcement venue was also Miami, not Washington. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2024 there are 2,935,000 people of Cuban origin in the United States, 61% of them in Florida and 42% in the Miami area. Experts said the indictment and aid proposal were messages aimed squarely at conservative Cuban American voters and the exile community. In fact, when Acting Attorney General Blanche announced at the event that Raúl would be indicted, attendees stood up, pulled out their cellphones, and cheered, chanting for a free Cuba.
The Cuban government strongly objected to Raúl's indictment. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on X that it was "a political measure with no legal basis whatsoever," calling it a "fabrication aimed at justifying the foolish act of military aggression against Cuba." He argued that the 1996 shootdown was an exercise of territorial self-defense "against the repeated provocations of notorious terrorists." Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also harshly criticized Secretary Rubio on X as "a mouthpiece for the corrupt and retaliatory interest group concentrated in South Florida."
Experts predicted that it is virtually impossible for the 94-year-old Raúl to actually appear in a U.S. court. President Trump told reporters after his commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut that "there will be no escalation (with Cuba). I don't think there is any need for that," drawing a line against a military clash. Even the indictment alone is expected to complicate overseas travel for Raúl and other Cuban leaders and place a significant burden on Cuba's diplomatic contacts with third countries.