Cuban citizens holds a poster of the country's former President Raul Castro during celebrations marking the victory on the 65th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the declaration of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution in Havana on April 16, 2026. The hypocrisy of indicting Raúl Castro nearly 30 years later is staggering, given the long history of anti-Cuban extremists operating from US soil to wreak havoc against the island, says the writer.
Medea Benjamin
So apparently the Trump administration has decided that what Cuba really needs right now—after decades of economic strangulation, CIA assassination attempts, sabotage campaigns, invasions, sanctions, blackouts, shortages, and more than half a century of failed regime-change policy—is the indictment of 94-year-old revolutionary icon Raúl Castro.
The United States and Cuba do not have to be enemies. In fact, just 10 years ago, the two countries were normalising relations. I was in Panama City at the 2015 Summit of the Americas when, to the delight of everyone there, former US President Barack Obama and Raúl Castro famously shook hands, marking the first substantial public interaction between leaders of the two countries in decades.
