It has already been consummated. The United States Department of Justice has indicted the strong man of the Cuban regime, Raúl Castro, in Miami on charges that refer to events from thirty years ago: . With this step, US prosecutors repeat the script applied in its day to Venezuela, when in March 2020, the United States Government charged Nicolás Maduro with drug trafficking charges. That step ended up becoming the justification for the Donald Trump Administration to intervene on January 3 in Venezuela and kidnap the Chavista president. From now on, Washington considers that it has the necessary legal basis to intervene on the island as it did in Caracas, although experts question the legitimacy of that intervention. But, in the meantime, the American president does not rule out a diplomatic agreement with the regime.
Immediately before the Department of Justice made public the indictment at a press conference in Miami, Donald Trump attacked the Castro government again. Although a day earlier he had defended the possibility of a pact with the authorities in Havana that would make changes in the regime possible, this Wednesday he insisted that the United States “will not tolerate a wayward State that provides shelter to hostile foreign military, intelligence and terrorist operations, just 150 kilometers from the American homeland.”
Also shortly before the indictment, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, launched a message in which he harshly attacked the island’s government and offered its population a “new relationship” between Washington and Havana, conditional on the Caribbean country introducing radical changes in its economy and holding free elections with different parties.
The charges against Castro refer to the downing of the small planes on February 24, 1996, when the now strong man of the regime was Minister of Defense. In that shootdown in which the four crew members died—Armando Alejandre, 45 years old; Carlos Costa, 29; Mario de la Peña, 24, and Pablo Morales, 29—and that, according to independent investigations by the UN, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and other entities, it undoubtedly occurred in international waters. Something that turned the incident into an attack against defenseless civilians. It did not take place, as Cuba alleged at the time, on the island’s territory, in what represented a legitimate act of self-defense.
The presentation of charges has been carried out by the prosecutor of the Department of Justice Jason Reding Quiñones, from the southern judicial district of Florida and ideologically aligned with Trumpism, represents the icing on the cake in everything from sanctions on its leaders to the imposition of an energy embargo in practice, after the cancellation of shipments of Venezuelan oil on which the island subsisted and the signing on January 29 of an executive order that opens the possibility of tariffs and secondary sanctions against the countries that provide fuel to Cuba.
Quiñones had already created a working group in March to open criminal investigations against representatives of the regime in Havana, which it was already noted then could open the door to taking measures against the Castro leaders similar to those that ended with Maduro sitting in the dock in a New York court. “Prosecutors across the country work every day to deliver justice, including efforts to combat international crime,” the Justice Department said in a statement at the time.
In comments from the White House, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, made no reference to the imminent indictment on Tuesday. But he has referred to his demand for political and economic changes on the island. And it has left the door open to an agreement with the regime, similar to the formula applied in Venezuela after Maduro’s arrest. A proposal that was already transmitted last week by the director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, to meet with Raúl Castro’s grandson, Raúl Rodríguez Castro, and whom the bets favor to become the leader with whom Washington would be willing to work in the event of a replacement between the current leaders.
“Look, Cuba is calling us. They need help: it is a failed nation. We are going to give it to them,” he declared while supervising the construction of the large ballroom he plans for the White House. “It is not going to be difficult for us to solve,” said the president. Asked if this could be achieved even if the regime remains in power – as has happened in Venezuela, where Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former number two, is in charge – he maintained that “I can achieve it, whether the regime changes or not.”
“It has been a harsh regime this year. They have killed a lot of people, but this country really needs help. They have nothing. They can’t turn on the lights. They don’t have anything to eat,” described the Republican. He also noted: “I am very much on the side of the Cuban-Americans. They have been fantastic people, many of them have lost family members, they have been very harmed, they have spent time in prison, they have come to this country and they have been very successful.”
The country’s economic situation, which was already very delicate before January, has become desperate as a result of the energy blockade imposed by the White House, and Cuba now faces one of its worst humanitarian crises. To the point that, last week, the authorities warned that
In its most recent measure of pressure until the indictment against Raúl Castro, the Trump Administration imposed sanctions this Monday against eleven personalities, and three entities, from the political and military establishments of the regime. According to the State Department, which assured that more similar measures will arrive in the coming days and weeks, these punishments are part of the Trump Administration’s “comprehensive campaign to address the urgent threats to national security posed by Cuba’s communist regime, and hold accountable both the regime and those who provide it with material or financial support.”
In a press conference at the Capitol in Washington before the indictment, Republican congresswoman from South Florida María Elvira Salazar assured about the prospect of indicting Castro: “today is a glorious day for Cubans, because help has arrived and because the United States, after 67 years, has decided to take the initiative to do the right thing and free the Cuban people from the satraps.”
