Former Cuban President Raúl Castro has been charged in the United States with murder, court records showed Wednesday, in a major escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against the island’s communist government.
Cuba’s 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 since left the island or that the government would allow his extradition.
The accusation comes as US President Donald Trump has pushed for regime change in Cuba, where Castro’s communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
Details of the charges were not immediately available. A U.S. 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 planes shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles.
Trump, in a statement earlier Wednesday, called Cuba a “rogue state harboring hostile foreign militaries” and framed his administration’s actions regarding the Caribbean island as part of a broader effort to expand U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.
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“From the shores of Havana to the shores of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness, crime and foreign invasion,” Trump said at an event at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated on Monday that the island does not represent a threat.
The indictment marks a new low in relations between the former Cold War rivals.
After taking power, Fidel Castro forged an alliance with the Soviet Union and then seized American-owned companies and properties. Since then, the United States has maintained an economic embargo on the nation of about 10 million people.
The two sides have spoken on and off over the years. Diplomatic relations briefly improved during former Democratic President Barack Obama’s second term, but Trump, a Republican, has taken a harder line.
