The Patriot Post® · The Long-Overdue Indictment of Raúl Castro
Fidel Castro rose to power in a bloody revolution in 1959, and the communist strongman held a firm grip on the island nation for 57 years. Fidel’s brother, Raúl, was right there with him, taking the reins of power in 2008 and ruling alone after Fidel’s death in 2016 until stepping down in 2018.
Upon Fidel’s death, then-President-elect Donald Trump remarked, “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty, and the denial of fundamental human rights.” The same can be said of Raúl, and that’s why the U.S. Department of Justice indicted the 94-year-old former Cuban leader yesterday on one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft. That crime happened in 1996, when a Cuban MiG shot down two Cessnas operated by the Miami-based Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, killing all four men aboard during a humanitarian mission to search for Cuban refugees on rafts in the Florida Straits.
At National Review, Giancarlo Sopo adds more damning information:
In 1996, Raúl Castro was Cuba’s minister of defense and commander of the armed forces. Three weeks after the killings, Fidel Castro brazenly told Time: “We discussed it with Raúl. We gave the order to the head of the air force. They shot the planes down.” Audio later obtained by the Miami Herald captured Raúl himself: “I told them to try to knock them down over [Cuban] territory,” and, “Knock them down into the sea when they reappear.” Judge [James Lawrence] King found in 1997 that the operation had been planned in advance. The International Civil Aviation Organization confirmed it occurred in international airspace.
It was an execution carried out in mid-air.
Now, consider how Reuters framed the indictment in its second paragraph: “The indictment marks a new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals and comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing for regime change in Cuba.”
The New York Times published a gushing article titled, “Raúl Castro Has Guided Cuba for Decades.” It doesn’t mention murder, death, or even much difficulty at all. The worst thing the Times says about Castro is that he was a “heavy drinker earlier in life.”
Good grief.
Until now, the only man ever held accountable for those in-air executions was Gerardo Hernández, a Cuban intelligence officer. And Barack Obama released him back to Cuba in 2014, where he was heralded as a hero along with the rest of the decorated murderers.
The Castro indictment largely follows the same playbook the Trump administration used against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in January. I wonder if they have Raúl’s size for one of those tracksuits. In any case, the interruption of Venezuela’s patronage of Cuba has ratcheted up the problems caused by Cuba’s leaders.
“From the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment,” Trump said at a Coast Guard Academy event earlier on Wednesday.
As for the Maduro model, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was coy, saying, “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.”
Obviously, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wouldn’t take kindly to a military operation to apprehend Castro, but he does have a choice.
Speaking of choices, Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented one directly (in Spanish) to the people of Cuba. “The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil ‘blockade’ by the U.S.,” the son of Cuban refugees said in a video message. “As you know, better than anyone, you have been suffering from blackouts for years. The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people.”
He continued, “President Trump is offering a new relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, but it must be directly with you, the Cuban people.”
“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people and our countries,” Rubio added. “And, currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”
🇺🇸🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/nwEePVJ1lX
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 20, 2026
Along with virtually every Cuban refugee, Rubio has long desired to see regime change in Cuba. Perhaps the Trump administration has judged that now is the time to knock over a domino that might set that in motion.