Photo courtesy of Anadolu.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded Wednesday to the indictment of former President and revolutionary leader Raul Castro by President Donald Trump for the killing of three Americans in 1996.
The US Department of Justice announced a superseding indictment charging Castro with the murder of four people, including the three Americans. Fidel Castro’s younger brother and successor is accused of participating in the shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft on Feb. 24, 1996.
The charges were unveiled at a critical moment amid escalating economic aggression and military threats by the US against Cuba, which has ultimately left the island without sufficient fuel supplies.
“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.
“The U.S. lies and distorts the events surrounding the downing of the planes belonging to the narco-terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on US social media company X.
According to the case built by US authorities, the Cuban government fired on the aircraft while they were carrying out a humanitarian mission in Cuban waters.
The Cuban government, however, has maintained ever since that the actions were legitimate and intended to safeguard Cuban airspace. It has also been argued that Brothers to the Rescue founder Jose Basulto was an operative for the CIA and part of an anti-Castro group involved in various acts of violence in Cuba.
“It knows full well—given the abundance of documentary evidence—that no imprudent action was taken nor was international law violated, as U.S. military forces have indeed been doing with their coldly calculated and openly publicized extrajudicial executions against civilian vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific,” said Diaz-Canel.
The indictment against the 94-year-old Castro comes during the anniversary of the US protectorate established under the Platt Amendment, which the US and the Cuban diaspora in North America describe as Cuban Independence Day.
To commemorate the date, the Trump administration released a statement claiming that in the last seven decades, the Cuban government has strangled the country’s economy and repressed its people, pushing the state toward collapse.
Diaz-Canel criticized Trump’s message, arguing that it dismissed the economic sanctions imposed on the island and its people since the 1960s.
“Only deeply twisted minds could deny before the world the collective punishment imposed on an entire people, which is increasingly becoming an act of genocide,” he said.
He also referred to the Jan. 29, 2026, executive order that imposes tariffs on any country supplying oil to the island, a measure that has resulted in a historic energy crisis in Cuba.
“It has long been the practice of that empire to wage wars and exterminate peoples on the basis of lies. Actions, not words, are the response Cuba and the world demand. Lift the blockade, and then we will see what happens,” he said.
‘Despicable accusation’ against Castro
Cuba, meanwhile, condemned the Justice Department’s accusations against Castro.
“The Revolutionary Government condemns in the strongest terms the despicable accusation by the United States Department of Justice announced on May 20 and proclaimed for several weeks against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution,” the government said in a statement.
It said the US lacks “legitimacy and jurisdiction” regarding the matter, and accused Washington of distorting facts surrounding the incident, which it said occurred after repeated violations of Cuban airspace.
The statement said Cuba previously filed formal complaints with the State Department, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), alleging more than 25 violations of Cuban airspace between 1994 and 1996.
Cuba maintained that its response to the incident constituted “an act of legitimate self-defense” under international law, citing the UN Charter and the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.
It accused the US of hypocrisy, referencing its own military actions against vessels and alleged drug trafficking operations, which it said resulted in deaths in international waters. Cuba described those actions as “extrajudicial executions” and “murders” under international law and US law.
Havana also argued that the indictment was part of a broader effort to justify “collective and ruthless punishment” against the Cuban population through sanctions and “unjust and genocidal energy blockade,” as well as threats of military aggression.
“The Cuban people reaffirm their unwavering decision to defend the Homeland and its Socialist Revolution,” according to the statement, adding that Cuba expresses “unrestricted and unchanging support” for Castro.