Florida, in the southeastern United States, has issued an arrest warrant for 95-year-old former Cuban leader Raul Castro. The move comes as US authorities step up pressure on the government in Havana. State Attorney General James Uthmeier said on Monday that the warrant was based on criminal charges over Castro’s alleged role in ordering two unarmed aircraft to be shot down in 1996.
The aircraft were affiliated with Brothers to the Rescue, a Florida-based group that helps Cubans fleeing the country. Four people were killed in the attack. Castro faces state-level charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Florida.
He said the arrest warrant was necessary accountability for the lives lost. The attack took place on February 24, 1996. US authorities say the planes were flying over international waters and received no warning before they were shot down.
Cuban officials, meanwhile, have argued that previous Brothers to the Rescue flights had breached the country’s airspace, despite warnings to stay away. Castro, now 95 years old, was Cuba’s defence minister at the time of the attack. A key figure in the Communist Party of Cuba, he later became president of the island in 2008, replacing his brother, the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
Though he retired from the presidency in 2018, Raul Castro and his family remain powerful figures in Cuba’s government. Since the start of the year, the Trump administration has signalled it would like to see regime change in Cuba. To trigger such change, the administration has tightened US restrictions on the island, including by imposing a de facto energy blockade in January.
By threatening steep tariffs against any country that supplies Cuba with oil, the US has effectively barred fuel exports to the country, according to experts. That, in turn, has caused deteriorating conditions on the island and strained the country’s already meagre power system, which relies heavily on fossil fuels. Only 40 percent of Cuba’s oil is produced domestically.
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