A federal grand jury in Miami has indicted Raúl Castro, 94, the former Cuban president and brother of Fidel, on charges of murder, conspiracy against U.S. nationals and destruction of aircraft. The indictment concerns the downing, on 24 February 1996, of two civilian planes operated by the Brothers to the Rescue organization, in which four people — Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales — were killed. The International Civil Aviation Organization had concluded that the incident took place over international waters.
The U.S. administration paired the announcement with a proposal of 100 million dollars in aid to Cuba, conditioned on political and economic reforms. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel rejected the indictment, calling it a politically motivated move without legal basis that is intended, in his view, to lay the groundwork for a military aggression.
The episode is part of a broader sequence of intensified pressure on Latin America. In January 2026, a U.S. military operation led to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whose drug-trafficking indictment had served as a legal foundation — a precedent cited by all observers. A tightening of energy sanctions, by cutting off Venezuelan oil deliveries, also triggered widespread power outages in Cuba. A visit by the CIA director to Havana shortly before the indictment came to light, along with reported contacts with a potential successor, suggests that diplomatic channels remain open in parallel.
Several points remain disputed. Actors disagree on the very nature of the move — an act of justice for the victims' families for some, an instrument of geopolitical pressure for others — as well as on the legitimacy of the 1996 shootdown, the risk of a military escalation modeled on the Venezuelan case, and the real significance of the aid offer in light of the energy blockade.
