MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Washington considers prosecuting Raúl Castro over 1996 shootdown of civilian planes

The incident that would underpin the indictment took place on 24 February 1996

The US government is weighing a federal indictment against former Cuban president Raúl Castro over the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft operated by the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue, the CBS network and the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday, citing official sources. The potential charges, which still require grand jury approval, emerge on a day marked by escalating tensions between Washington and Havana and by a confidential visit to the Cuban capital by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

The incident that would underpin the indictment took place on 24 February 1996, when MiG fighters of the Cuban Air Force shot down two Cessna 337s operated by the Miami-based organization, which conducted flights to locate rafters at sea. The attack, which the International Civil Aviation Organization subsequently determined had occurred over international waters of the Florida Strait —Havana maintained it was a violation of its sovereign airspace— killed four volunteers and marked an irreversible breaking point in bilateral relations. Florida's attorney general announced in March his intention to reopen a state investigation into the case that had been archived for years.

A Justice Department official cited by Reuters confirmed that Washington plans to formally pursue the charges, although the timing of the filing was not specified. Raúl Castro, 94, stepped down from the leadership of the Communist Party in 2021 but retains influence within the elite that controls power in Cuba. The brother of the late Fidel Castro, he served as minister of the Armed Forces for 49 years and was the architect of the limited economic reforms that followed the Special Period. His presidential tenure between 2006 and 2018 was marked by the diplomatic thaw with Washington under the Barack Obama administration.

The judicial announcement coincided on Thursday with an unexpected visit to Havana by Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe. According to reports, the head of the CIA held closed-door meetings with Raúl Rodríguez Castro, the former president's grandson and close adviser, as well as with Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of the island's intelligence services. The trip suggests the simultaneous opening of a judicial pressure channel and an operational contact line between Washington and the Cuban security apparatus.

The move comes during an exceptionally critical week for the island. President Miguel Díaz-Canel's government on Thursday accepted a USD 100 million US humanitarian aid offer for food, fuel, and medicines, channeled through the Catholic Church, after acknowledging the depletion of national fuel reserves and the circulation of internal alerts about the possible activation of “Option Zero,” an extreme rationing plan inherited from the Special Period.