WASHINGTON — The United States is moving to indict Raúl Castro, the former Cuban president, two sources familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
The possible charges are related to a 30-year-old case that involved the Cuban government shooting down two planes operated by a humanitarian group in 1996, the people familiar said. The indictment would have to be approved by a grand jury.
News that the U.S. was looking to indict Castro came hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe led a delegation to Havana on May 14 to deliver a message from President Donald Trump to Cuban officials and Raúl "Raulito" Guillermo Rodriguez Castro. Raulito is the elder Castro's grandson.
The potential indictment for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, now 94, and the charges were first reported by CBS News.
The 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue remains one of the most politically charged episodes in modern U.S.-Cuba relations – and one in which some U.S. officials are still pressing for criminal accountability three decades later.
