MIAMI — Former Cuban president Raul Castro is facing more charges in Florida related to the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles after the U.S. government indicted the former leader earlier this year. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday accused Castro, 95, of directing spies to infiltrate that the exile group Brothers to the Rescue and ordering the attack on their planes. The state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder is based largely on a federal indictment announced in May that included charges of murder and destruction of an airplane. It remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom. Uthmeier said the arrest warrant will restrict Castro’s ability leave the island nation and prevent him from travelling to any place with an extradition agreement with the U.S. “I’m not ignorant of the fact that Raul Castro is an older man who’s probably not looking to march himself into Miami,” Uthmeier said. “I think others would get him before the court of law would, but at the end of the day, we stand ready to prosecute the case.” According to the state complaint, Castro was the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and First Vice President of Cuba when he gave the final authorization to shoot down the planes. Cuban Directorate of Intelligence agents operating as part of the Wasp Network in the Miami area and the Florida Keys infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and reported flight plans, investigator said. On Feb. 24, 1996, three unarmed Cessna aircraft departed Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade County. Well outside Cuba’s territorial waters, Cuban MiGs destroyed two of the civilian planes with air-to-air missiles, killing the four occupants, the complaint said. Both aircraft were travelling away from Cuba and received no warning despite contact with Havana air traffic control, U.S. officials said. “Our historic federal indictment laid the groundwork, and James and his team have now taken the important step of bringing charges under Florida law,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quinones said at a news conference. In Cuba, authorities have rejected the new accusations against Castro. “This reprehensible action against the Army General--staged this morning in a pathetic Miami circus with an electoral subtext--has no legal or practical basis whatsoever, nor will it ever have one,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on his X account. “This maneuver, dressed up in legal terms by anti-Cuban politicians against Raul and against Cuba, deserves our firm condemnation. It is part of an aggressive agenda and reflects the difficulties they face in trying to justify the blockade and the collective punishment of our people,” the president added. Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to Diaz-Canel, a trusted loyalist, in 2018. While Raul Castro retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Cuban government’s longtime patron. After ousting the Venezuelan leader earlier this year, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island. David Fischer, The Associated Press
