US state issues arrest warrant for Raul Castro

A Florida court has approved legal action against the former Cuban leader over the 1996 shooting down of two US planes

A Florida judge has issued an arrest warrant for former Cuban President Raul Castro, 95, the state’s attorney general announced on Monday. The move marks another escalation in Washington’s months-long pressure campaign against Havana.

The warrant pertains to the 1996 shooting down of two American planes operated by anti-communist Cuban exiles off Cuba’s coast. US authorities accuse Castro of ordering the attack.

“Today, we are announcing state charges against Raul Castro with an arrest warrant for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said at a press conference in Miami. Prosecutors had gathered evidence and witness testimony linking a Cuban spy network to the operation that allegedly led Castro to order the planes shot down, he said.

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In May, the US Justice Department separately indicted Castro and five others on charges including murder, conspiracy to kill US nationals and destruction of aircraft. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the indictment a “political maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation” and accused Washington of using it as a pretext to justify future military action against Havana.

In February of 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two US planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group, killing four men. Havana has maintained that it acted in self-defense against aircraft that violated its airspace.

The CIA has a long history of working with Cuban exile groups against Havana, most notably during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Washington imposed a broad trade embargo on Cuba the following year.

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US President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Havana as part of what he called the “Donroe doctrine” – a modern interpretation of the 19th-century hegemonic political strategy known as the Monroe Doctrine, which aims to assert US dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

After US forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Trump imposed a near-total energy blockade of Cuba and announced that the island will be “next” in line for regime change. The restrictions have led to a widespread energy crisis and frequent blackouts in Cuba.

Russia, China, Mexico and several other nations have provided humanitarian aid to Cuba. Moscow delivered around 700,000 barrels of oil to the island in March.