FILE PHOTO: Cuba’s former President Raul Castro watches a May Day rally in Havana, Cuba May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Norlys Perez/File Photo
By Jana Winter
May 14 (Reuters) – The United States plans to indict Cuba’s Raul Castro, a U.S. Department of Justice official said late on Thursday.
The timing of the potential indictment, which would need to be approved by a grand jury, was not immediately clear, but the official said it sounds imminent.
The potential indictment of the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of Fidel is expected to focus on the downing of aircraft, the official said on condition of anonymity.
CBS previously reported that the case relates to Cuba’s deadly 1996 shootdown of planes operated by humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue.
Representatives for Cuba’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of normal business hours. A U.S. Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The development comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Havana. The Trump administration has described Cuba’s current communist-run government as corrupt and incompetent and is pushing for a regime change.
President Donald Trump has heaped pressure on the island, effectively imposing a blockade by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, igniting power outages and delivering blows to its economy.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has been overseeing an effort to examine potential criminal charges against senior Cuban government officials.
Officials from both countries acknowledged earlier this year that they were in talks, but the negotiations appeared to founder amid the ongoing U.S. fuel blockade.
However, on Thursday, the Cuban government confirmed it had met with CIA chief John Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe told intelligence officials in Cuba that the U.S. was prepared to engage on economic security issues if Cuba makes “fundamental changes,” a CIA official said.
The United States has previously used criminal cases against foreign political figures to justify military actions.
In January, when the U.S. military attacked Venezuela, the Trump administration described the raid as a “law enforcement operation” to bring Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro to New York to face criminal charges.
Trump in March threatened that Cuba “is next” after Venezuela.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-plans-indict-cubas-raul-005107018.html
UPDATE: May 11, 2026
Pentagon draws up new war plans as Trump grows increasingly frustrated with Cuba
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Moscow vows to aid Cuba amid US blockade
Humanitarian shipments will continue, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said
https://www.rt.com/russia/639033-moscow-vows-aid-cuba-us-blockade/
The whole population will be mobilized to protect the island if there is an American attack, Miguel Diaz-Canel has said
https://www.rt.com/news/638646-cuba-trump-diaz-canel/
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BREAKING: Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin delivered 100,000 tons of crude oil to Cuba despite the ongoing U.S. blockade.
The U.S. Coast Guard did not attempt to stop it, the tanker was reportedly escorted to the Atlantic by the Russian Navy corvette Soobrazitelny.
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IRAN WILL ADD MADURO’S RETURN TO VENEZUELA AND THE LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA TO ITS NEGOTIATION CONDITIONS. EVEN IF THESE THINGS DON’T HAPPEN, THIS WILL INCREASE SUPPORT FOR IRAN FROM THE ENTIRE GLOBAL LEFT.
Russian tanker approaches Cuba despite US oil blockade
President Trump said the vessel was allowed through on humanitarian grounds
https://www.rt.com/news/636691-russian-oil-cuba-us-blockade/
“We don’t mind having somebody get a boat load because they need to survive,”he said.“I’d prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling.”
Trump, however, added that he still expects Havana to“fail soon,”saying the US would be there to“help it out.”
READ MORE:Trump threatens Cubais‘next’ after Iran and Venezuela
The Caribbean nation has faced severe fuel shortages and power cuts in recent months after Venezuela, once Havana’s closest ally, halted oil shipments following pressure from Washington.
Two Mexico aid ships disappear en route to Cuba
Two Cuba-bound aid ships found days after disappearing
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The CIA, wishful thinking, and imperial blindness: How the US engineered its own failure in Cuba
Sixty-five years after the Bay of Pigs, the invasion still stands as a lesson in how arrogance and flawed intelligence lead to disaster
https://www.rt.com/news/639048-cia-wishful-thinking-and-imperial-blindness/
Greencrow concludes: WordPress/CSIS is playing games with my blog again this morning. My “conclusions” were edited out. So I will have to repeat that the above link makes you yearn for the good old days when the US had a president who was literate, principled, not a sociopath with no allies and, above all–sane.
The nations like Cuba in the Western Hemisphere will need to get used to being Trump’s “low hanging fruit” available to him to bully and threat when he gets frustrated dealing with nations like Iran who have big power allies like Russia and China. Canada has burned our bridges with the big powers and now have to depend on “NATO” for defense.
That is why after Cuba we’re “next up the plank”.
Stay tuned.
Greencrow as the crow flies 
Folks, WordPress/CSIS edited out the initial comments I made in this post. Gaslighting again. I said that Trump was going to drag the 94-year-old Cuban senior citizen to a Kangaroo court in NYC just like he did Venezuelan President Maduro.
Whenever he gets frustrated with his losses in Iran he takes it out on the Western Hemisphere nations who are like sitting ducks. Can you imagine the FIFA World Cup taking place in the US in a few days while the US is having a nuclear war with Iran? That seems to be what’s in the cards at the moment.
gc
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