The US charges Castro with conspiracy to kill US Citizens!
Miami, US, May 20 (EFE).-
The United States charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro (2006-2018) on Wednesday with conspiracy to kill United States nationals, destruction of an aircraft, and murder, over the deaths of four pilots from the organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, according to court documents.
The Department of Justice filed the charges in federal court in the Southern District of Florida against Castro, 94, whom it accuses of ordering the shooting down of two planes 30 years ago, while he was minister of the Cuban Armed Forces.
The indictment was released before a press conference by Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Freedom Tower in Miami, where, between 1962 and 1974, over half a million Cuban refugees were processed as immigrants after fleeing the 1959 revolution, making it a symbolic backdrop for Cuban exiles.
The US Attorney’s Office accuses Castro of ordering the shooting down, on Feb. 24, 1996, of the small planes carrying Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, and Mario Manuel de la Peña, all US citizens, and Pablo Morales, a legal resident, over their work with Brothers to the Rescue, a group that assisted rafters attempting to flee the island for Florida.
The formal indictment also includes other Cuban military personnel allegedly involved in the shooting down of the planes: Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, and Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez.
The Cuban government claimed that the aircraft were in its airspace and that the pilots were “terrorists,” but the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ruled that the incident occurred in international waters.
At the time of the incident, Raúl Castro served as minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), which would place him at the top of the chain of command for the decision to shoot down the aircraft.
The indictment against Castro, 94, comes amid growing pressure from the Trump administration against the Castro government.
President Donald Trump has imposed an oil embargo on the island, escalated his threats to “take control” of the country, and expanded sanctions against the Cuban leadership and the military-industrial conglomerate Gaesa.
These actions, coupled with the January capture in Caracas of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a key ally of Cuba, have deepened the economic and humanitarian crisis plaguing the island, which is facing a shortage of crude oil and severe energy problems. EFE hbc-ppc/mcd
