The potential costs relate to Cuba’s 1996 downing of humanitarian planes, US media shops report.
Printed On 15 Could 2026
America is planning to indict former Cuban President Raul Castro as Washington raises the strain on the island’s communist authorities.
A number of US media shops reported on Thursday that the potential costs in opposition to the 94-year-old brother of Fidel Castro relate to a 1996 incident by which Cuba shot down planes flown by the anti-Castro humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue.
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The transfer comes amid a US blockade that has halted just about all gas provides to the island, with the Trump administration, after celebrating its overthrow of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, pushing for regime change.
Castro, who succeeded his brother as Cuban president, is nonetheless thought of essentially the most highly effective individual within the nation. Any indictment would should be permitted by a grand jury.
The experiences surfaced hours after a US delegation led by CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officers in Havana, the place he supplied $100m in humanitarian help on the situation that the federal government agrees to “significant reforms”.
Escalation
Indicting Castro would mark a surprising escalation within the ongoing disaster in US-Cuba relations, which have deteriorated since US President Donald Trump took workplace for a second time period in 2025.
Trump has repeatedly mentioned he desires to topple Cuba’s communist-led authorities, warning that Cuba is “subsequent” after the US army abduction of Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro.
The president first reduce the circulation of funds and gas from Venezuela to Cuba in January. He then threatened heavy tariffs in opposition to any nation that gives Havana with oil, implementing a de facto gas blockade on the island.
Since then, the nation of 11 million has been beset by extreme gas shortages and blackouts. Vitality Minister Vicente de la O Levy warned on Thursday that the nation had fully run out of diesel and gas oil.
On the identical time, US officers have been exploring potential legal costs in opposition to senior Cuban authorities officers, together with these allegedly concerned within the 1996 aircraft downing.
The efforts have been led by the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of Florida, in response to the Reuters information company.
