US raises pressure on Cuba with indictment of former leader as island's
president condemns charges
[May 21, 2026]
By JOSHUA GOODMAN and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
MIAMI (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced criminal charges
against former Cuban President Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of
civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles as the Trump administration
escalated pressure on the island's socialist government.
The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of two small
planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, who
turns 95 next month, was Cuba's defense minister at the time. The
charges, which were secretly filed by a grand jury in April, included
murder and destruction of an airplane. Five Cuban military pilots were
also charged.
“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have
waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Miami
at a ceremony coinciding with Cuban independence day to honor those
killed. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian
missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression
across the Florida straits.”
Asked to what lengths American authorities would go to bring Castro to
face charges in the U.S., Blanche said: “There was a warrant issued for
his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or
by another way.”
Asked what will happen next for Cuba, President Donald Trump said,
“We’re going to see.” He added that the U.S. is ready to provide
humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”
The charges pose a real threat, observers said, following the capture by
U.S. forces in January of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to
face drug charges in New York.
“He’s going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter
Kornbluh, a specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National
Security Archive at George Washington University.
Cuban president condemns indictment
While it remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S.
courtroom, the murder and conspiracy charges carry the potential for
life in prison or the death penalty upon conviction.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a
political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military
aggression against Cuba.” In a message on social media, he accused the
U.S. of lying and manipulating events surrounding the shootdown,
including ignoring repeated warnings by Cuban officials at the time that
they would defend against “dangerous violations” of their airspace “by
notorious terrorists.”
Among those attending Wednesday's ceremony in downtown Miami 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 spoke to multiple federal investigators about
charging Castro, referring to him as “one of the main architects of the
crime.” But none until now had the courage to seek justice for her
family and the other victims.
“It has been long overdue,” she said standing before a giant photo of
her father.
Trump has threatened military action for months
Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S.
forces captured Maduro, the Cuban government’s longtime patron. After
ousting the Venezuelan leader, the White House ordered a blockade that
choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food
shortages and an economic collapse across the island.
Since Maduro's capture, Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in
Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover”
of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American
investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.
Trump’s first administration indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges
and used that to justify removing him from power and whisking him to New
York to face trial.
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A Brothers to the Rescue plane flies over The Democracy
Movement flotilla at the twelve-mile limit north of Havana, Cuba,
July 10, 1999. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged the Cuban people to
demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart
a new course in relations with the U.S.
“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship
between our people,” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a
Spanish-language video message. “Currently, the only thing standing in
the way of a better future are those who control your country.”
Raúl Castro believed to wield power behind the scenes
Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro
in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, Díaz-Canel, in 2018.
While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is
widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the
prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who
previously met secretly with Rubio.
Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana for meetings
with Cuban officials, including Castro’s grandson. Two other senior
State Department officials met with the grandson in April.
The investigation into Castro stretches back to the 1990s
In 1995, planes flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue buzzed over
Havana dropping leaflets urging Cubans to rise up against the Castro
government.
After Cuban protests, the Federal Aviation Administration also opened an
investigation and met with the group’s leaders to urge them to ground
the flights, according to declassified government records obtained by
the National Security Archive.
But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by
Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian Cessna
planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace. All
four men aboard were killed. A third plane, carrying the group's leader,
narrowly escaped.
Raúl Castro faced earlier indictment
Guy Lewis, who was a federal prosecutor in Miami in the 1990s, first
uncovered evidence linking senior Cuban military officials to cocaine
trafficking by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. Following the shootdown, the
investigation expanded, and prosecutors pursued charges against Raúl
Castro for leading a vast racketeering conspiracy by Cuba’s armed
forces.
In the end, only the head of the Cuban air force and two of the MiG
pilots involved in the downing of the planes were indicted but have
never been apprehended.
A fourth individual was convicted of leading a Miami-based spy ring
called Operation Scorpion that collected intelligence about the flights.
He was later swapped for a U.S. intelligence asset imprisoned in Cuba as
part of President Barack Obama's outreach to Cuba.
The shootdown led the U.S. to harden its position against Cuba, even
though the Cold War had ended and the Castros’ support for revolution
across Latin America was a fading memory.
But Castro himself was spared as the Clinton administration raised
concerns about such a high-profile indictment.
___
Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters David
Fischer in Miami; Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Meg Kinnard in
Houston; Will Weissert in Washington; Michael Weissenstein in New York;
and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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