The acting U.S. Attorney General, Todd Blanche, stated this Wednesday that he expects the Cuban ex-dictator Raúl Castro to appear before the U.S. justice system “voluntarily or by any other means” after criminal charges were revealed against him for the downing of two small planes in 1996. Blanche made these statements at a press conference in Miami before an audience of Cuban Americans who responded with applause.
Castro, 94 years old and younger brother of Fidel Castro, faces charges in the federal court of the Southern District of Florida for conspiracy to kill Americans, destruction of aircraft, and murder for allegedly ordering the downing of the aircraft on February 24, 1996. The incident claimed the lives of four Cuban-born men who worked with the organization Brothers to the Rescue, which assisted rafters trying to escape the island.
As explained by Florida Senator Ashley Moody when reading the charges, the crime of conspiracy to kill Americans carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Destruction of an aircraft adds up to five additional years, and each of the four murders carries “a maximum charge of death or life imprisonment”.The charges, formally presented in April although revealed this Wednesday by the Department of Justice (DOJ), also include five other Cuban military personnel: Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez and Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez, including the air force pilots who shot down the aircraft.
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When asked if Washington is planning an operation in Cuba similar to the one that led to the capture of the then Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on January 3, Blanche declined to answer directly. “I am not going to compare cases”, he said, and added: “The way we bring people accused of a crime varies”. The prosecutor stressed that charging individuals who are not physically in US territory is not a new practice for his office.
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The downed planes were carrying Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, and Mario Manuel de la Peña, U.S. citizens, and Pablo Morales, a legal resident, all of Cuban origin. The Cuban regime claimed at the time that the aircraft were in its airspace and that the aviators were “terrorists”. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ruled, however, that the incident occurred in international waters.
The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and former dictator Raúl Castro and Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel observe the May Day demonstration in Havana, Cuba, on May 1, 2019. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
Trump called the accusation a “very important moment”, although he downplayed the possibility of military action against Cuba. “There will be no escalation. I don’t think it’s necessary. The place is falling apart. It’s a disaster and they’ve lost control somehow,” the president told the press. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, of Cuban-American origin, addressed a video message to the Cuban people in which he accused the leadership of Havana of theft, corruption and oppression, and conditioned USD 100 million in aid on the island taking steps towards a political opening. Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel rejected the accusation and stated that it lacks a “legal basis”. Through his X account, he maintained that the charges seek to “add to the file they fabricate to justify the madness of a military aggression against Cuba”. Díaz-Canel also linked the date of the announcement —May 20, when the Cuban-American community commemorates Cuba’s independence from Spain— with what he described as a long history of US interference on the island.
