The pressure is rising. Today, the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, accusing him of murder for the Cuban military’s shootdown of two planes in 1996. The move against the ninety-four-year-old brother of the late Fidel Castro was accompanied by a Spanish-language message to the Cuban people from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, attacking the regime and offering Cubans a “new relationship” with the Trump administration.
Echoing Rubio’s message at an Atlantic Council event today, Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) noted that “Cubans have achieved incredible success all over the world, except for in Cuba, and that needs to change. And I think it can change.” Speaking to broader regional dynamics, Moreno pointed to the removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January and the upcoming Colombian elections: “Venezuela was enabling the Cuban regime to spread chaos throughout Latin America. If that ends, Venezuela’s well on a path, and we have a good result in Colombia, you have a renaissance for Latin America that is long overdue.”
The pressure campaign raises a number of urgent questions. We turned to experts in the Atlantic Council’s network for answers.
