Diaz-Canel rejects US indictment of Raul Castro over 1996 shootdown

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday dismissed the United States' indictment of former revolutionary leader Raul Castro as a politically motivated attack designed to fabricate pretexts for military aggression against the island nation.

Superseding indictment

The US Department of Justice announced a superseding indictment charging the 94-year-old Castro with the murder of four people, including three US citizens, over the February 24, 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft. Diaz-Canel said through his account on the social media platform X that the charges represent a "political maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation" aimed at justifying military aggression. "The U.S. lies and distorts the events surrounding the downing of the planes belonging to the narco-terrorist organization," he added.

Competing narratives

According to US authorities, Cuban forces fired on the aircraft during a humanitarian mission in Cuban waters, killing all four occupants. Havana has maintained that the actions were legitimate acts of airspace defense, arguing that Brothers to the Rescue founder Jose Basulto operated as a CIA asset and that the organization conducted violent attacks against the island.

Economic warfare and anniversary

The indictment comes amid escalating economic aggression by Washington — including a January executive order imposing tariffs on countries supplying oil to Cuba that has triggered a historic energy crisis — and coincides with the anniversary of the Platt Amendment, which established the US protectorate over Cuba in 1901. Diaz-Canel demanded that Washington lift the blockade, stating that "actions, not words, are the response Cuba and the world demand."