Castro could be captured like Maduro, Trump administration hints

 The US could capture Raúl Castro as it did Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, the acting attorney general appeared to suggest.

Mr Castro, 94, the former president of Cuba, has been indicted on murder charges over the shooting down of two planes operated by a US-based Cuban exile group in 1996, the US department of justice said.

Todd Blanche, the acting US attorney general, said Mr Castro and five co-defendants also faced charges of destruction of an aircraft and conspiracy to kill US nationals.

At a press conference announcing the charges, Mr Blanche was asked about the prospects of getting Mr Castro to the US to face justice. He said this was not a “show indictment”, adding that US officials expected him to “show up here by his own will or by another way”.

In January, US forces captured then-Venezuelan leader Mr Maduro and his wife in a night-time raid in Caracas. They were flown to the US, where they are awaiting trial on drug-trafficking charges.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Freedom Tower in Miami, which housed Cubans fleeing the island for Florida following the Cuban revolution in 1959, Mr Blanche received a standing ovation after announcing the charges against Mr Castro.

He said: “For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in this country, in the United States of America, for acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens.

“President Trump is committed to restoring a very simple but important principle: if you kill Americans, we will pursue you, no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold, and in this case, no matter how much time has passed.”

The Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue ran search and rescue flights in the 1990s as Cubans tried to leave the island on rafts. Two of the group’s Cessna aircraft were shot down in 1996, killing three Americans and a permanent US resident.

Mr Blanche said: “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida Straits. My message today is clear: the United States and President Trump does not, and will not, forget its citizens.”

Mr Castro, the brother of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, was Cuba’s defence minister at the time of the 1996 killings. He is understood to still hold considerable power in the country.

Cuban leaders have claimed the planes violated Cuban airspace. They accused Brothers to the Rescue of “illegal and provocative activities”, including dropping “flyers containing enemy propaganda”, according to a 1996 UN report.

Tensions between the US and Cuba have escalated in recent months, as Donald Trump has discussed a possible “friendly takeover” of the island. Cuba depended on Venezuela for much of its oil supplies, which have been cut off since the capture of Mr Maduro.

Mr Trump has threatened military action in Cuba since January’s military operation in Venezuela. A US blockade has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

Since Mr Maduro’s capture, the US president has also ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba as negotiations between the two countries have continued.

In February, Axios reported that Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, had secretly met Mr Castro’s 41-year-old grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro – known as Raúlito.

On Wednesday, Mr Rubio urged the Cuban people to demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart a new course in relations with the US.

Mr Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a Spanish-language video message: “In the US, we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people. Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”

Carlos Fernández de Cossío Domínguez, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, criticised the US secretary of state on X, saying he “lies so repeatedly and unscrupulously about Cuba and tries to justify the aggression he inflicts on the Cuban people”.