GERMANY PERSPECTIVE

Berlin, May 21, 2026. The US Department of Justice has officially announced charges against Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former Cuban head of state, for his alleged role in the shooting down of two civilian aircraft in 1996. The charges are serious: destruction of aircraft, murder, and conspiracy to kill American citizens. These charges have been filed in a Florida court.

On February 24, 1996, two aircraft of the Cuban exile organization Brothers to the Rescue, based in Miami, were intercepted by Cuban military fighter jets. The four people on board were killed. Castro was then Defense Minister. Havana has always presented this shooting down as a legitimate response to a violation of its airspace, but the International Civil Aviation Organization had later established that the incident occurred over international waters.

Justice Minister Todd Blanche clarified that Castro had overseen the chain of command that led to the order to fire. He added that he expected Castro to appear before American justice "voluntarily or otherwise," without specifying what this meant. Raúl Castro appeared in public in early May; nothing indicates that he plans to leave Cuba or that the Cuban government plans to extradite him.

German media, such as Tagesschau, immediately highlight the parallel with Venezuela: the indictment of former President Nicolás Maduro for drug trafficking had preceded his arrest during an American military operation in Caracas in January. Trump had declared in March that Cuba would be "next" after Venezuela. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned on Monday that an American military intervention in his country would lead to a "bloodbath".

Washington has simultaneously waved the carrot: Secretary of State Marco Rubio has promised $100 million in aid if Havana agrees to engage in a path of opening. Rubio has attributed the responsibility for the power outages, food shortages, and fuel shortages that have hit the island since the reduction of Venezuelan oil shipments to the Cuban leadership. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has described Rubio as a "mouthpiece for corrupt and vindictive interests," while refusing to formally rule out accepting this aid, which he described as a "cynicism" in the face of the ongoing American economic blockade.