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Castro Indictment Ups Pressure on Cuba 05/21 06:08
MIAMI (AP) -- Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced criminal charges
against former Cuban President Ral 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 Nicols 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 Daz-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.
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."
Ral 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, Daz-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, Ral Guillermo Rodrguez 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.
Ral 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 Ral 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.
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