A HISTORIC INDICTMENT: It took 30 years, and comes as the Trump administration is ratcheting up the pressure on Cuba’s leadership to self-deport as the island nation’s economy is crashing and its people are facing a humanitarian crisis.“Today, the United States announces a historic indictment, charging Raul Castro and five co-defendants for their roles in the February 24, 1996, shoot down of two brothers to the rescue planes,” U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quinones said at a press conference in Miami, where the indictment, returned by a grand jury in April, was unsealed. “According to the indictment, Raul Castro, then minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, authorized and oversaw a military chain of command that ended with Cuban fighter jets firing air-to-air missiles at civilian aircraft over international waters. Those missiles destroyed the planes without warning and killed all aboard.”“They were not combatants, they were not armed, and they posed no threat,” Quinones said.
The indictment of the former Cuban president was meant to send a message, said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Nations and their leaders cannot be permitted to target Americans, kill them, and not face accountability,” he said. “President Trump is committed to restoring a very simple but important principle. If you kill Americans, we will pursue you no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold, and in this case, no matter how much time has passed.”
