Former Cuban President Raul Castro was charged with murder in the United States, court records showed Wednesday, in a major escalation of Washington’s pressure campaign against the island’s communist government.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Castro, 94, last appeared in public in Cuba earlier this month, and there is no evidence that he has left the island since then or that the government would allow his extradition.
The indictment comes as US President Donald Trump pushes for regime change in Cuba, where Castro’s communists have held power since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
Details of the charges were not immediately available. A US Justice Department official told Reuters last week on condition of anonymity that the charges against him are expected to be based on a 1996 incident in which Cuban aircraft shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles.
In a statement issued earlier on Wednesday, Trump described Cuba as a “rogue state harboring a hostile foreign army” and described his administration’s actions regarding the Caribbean island as part of a broader effort to expand American influence in the Western Hemisphere.
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“From the beaches of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will expel the forces of chaos, crime, and foreign encroachment,” Trump said at a Coast Guard Academy event in New London, Connecticut.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Monday that the island did not pose a threat.
The indictment represents a new setback in relations between the two longtime Cold War rivals.
After assuming power, Fidel Castro made an alliance with the Soviet Union and then seized US-owned businesses and property. Since then, the United States has imposed an economic embargo on the country of about 10 million people.
The two sides have spoken sporadically over the years. Diplomatic relations improved briefly during former Democratic President Barack Obama’s second term, but Trump, a Republican, took a tougher stance.
