Former Cuban President Raul Castro waves the Cuban flag during a May Day commemoration ceremony to commemorate International Workers’ Day at Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana on May 1, 2025.
Yamil Raji | AFP | Getty Images
The Trump administration is expected to announce criminal charges against former Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday, in a move marking an intensification of Washington’s pressure campaign against the Caribbean island’s communist government.
The charges against Mr. Castro, 94, are expected to stem from the 1996 incident in which a Cuban military jet shot down a plane operated by a group of Cuban exiles, a U.S. Justice Department official told Reuters last week on condition of anonymity.
The Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office will hold an event to honor the victims of the incident starting at 1:00 pm EDT (5:00 pm GMT). The Justice Department said Tuesday it would make the announcement in conjunction with the ceremony, but did not provide details of the announcement.
President Donald Trump is seeking regime change in Cuba, which has been ruled by communists since Raul Castro’s late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
The United States has effectively shut down the island by threatening sanctions on countries that supply it with fuel, causing power outages and hurting its already fragile economy.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed resistance in public comments on May 15, but Cuba has yet to comment directly on the threat of prosecution.
“Despite (US) embargoes, sanctions, and threats of military force, Cuba continues on its sovereign path toward socialist development,” Rodriguez said.
come help my brothers
Born in 1931, Raul Castro became a key figure along with his brother in the guerrilla war that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
He helped defeat the US-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and served as defense minister for decades. He succeeded his brother as president and remains an influential figure behind the scenes in Cuban politics.
At the time of the 1996 incident, he was the Minister of Defense.
The two small planes that were shot down were operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a group of Cuban exile pilots based in Miami. All four men on board were killed.
The group said its mission was to search for Cuban rafters fleeing the island in the Florida Straits, and it regularly flies near the Cuban coast.
The Cuban government maintains that the airstrike was a legitimate response to aircraft intruding into Cuban airspace. Fidel Castro said the Cuban military acted on a “standing order” to shoot down any aircraft entering Cuban airspace. He said Raul Castro had not given any specific orders to shoot at the plane.
The United States condemned the attack and imposed sanctions, but did not bring criminal charges against the Castro brothers. The Justice Department indicted three Cuban military officers in 2003, but they were not extradited.
The International Civil Aviation Organization later concluded that the downing took place in international waters.
President Trump: “Cuba is next”
The filing of criminal charges against U.S. adversaries like Castro would be reminiscent of previous drug-trafficking indictments of Havana’s ally and imprisoned former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
The Trump administration cited the indictment as justification for the Jan. 3 raid in Caracas by U.S. forces, during which President Maduro was captured and taken to New York to face charges. He pleaded not guilty.
President Trump has described Cuba’s communist government as corrupt and threatened in March that Cuba would be “next” after Venezuela.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Monday that any U.S. military action against Cuba would lead to “bloodshed” and said the island was not a threat.
