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.