The United States Justice Department has indicted Raúl Castro, the former ruler of Cuba. Similarly, this move mirrors the one made by the US that offered a pretext for the kidnapping of Venezuela’s ruler, Nicolas Maduro.
Much of the world condemned the US’s handling of Maduro and the brief military action in Venezuela it took to remove him from power. Since then, the US has taken control of most of Venezuela’s oil.
Trump Halts Second Wave of Venezuela Strikes As Global Outrage Grows Over Maduro Abduction
The indictment of Castro was unsealed on Wednesday. It accuses Castro of ordering the shooting down of two American planes off the coast of Cuba in 1996, according to a report by RT. Castro and five of his officials are charged with conspiracy to kill US nationals, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder, one for each of the Cuban-Americans killed in the shootdown.
Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time of the incident, “participated in a conspiracy that ended with Cuban military aircraft firing missiles at those civilian planes and killing four Americans,” acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference in Miami on Wednesday. –RT
On February 24th, 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two light aircraft. At the time, Havana said that the planes were violating its airspace. The planes, two Cessna 337 Skymasters, were being operated by “Brothers to the Rescue.” That group is made up of anti-communist Cubans and Americans led by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Jose Basulto. The group’s official purpose was to help dissidents to leave Cuba, and to “support the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active non-violence.”
There is no indication that Castro, who is now 96 years old, will ever appear in an American court. Cuba has limited diplomatic relations with the US, let alone an extradition treaty, and the Cuban government is highly unlikely to hand over Castro, a former president and revolutionary hero, to the US, where he would face the death penalty if found guilty. –RT
The indictment “only reveals the arrogance and frustration that the representatives of the empire feel toward the unyielding resolve of the Cuban Revolution,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a statement on X. “This is a political maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation, aimed solely at padding the fabricated dossier they use to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”
Could the US be planning regime change in Cuba in the same way it wanted regime change in Venezuela? Just a few days ago, we noticed that it certainly looks like the US is creating a “case” for the invasion of Cuba.
US Is Inventing a Case For Economic WAR Against Cuba