WASHINGTON — The United States is moving to indict former Cuban president Raúl Castro, two sources familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
The possible charges are related to a 30-year-old case that involved the Cuban government shooting down two planes operated by a humanitarian group in 1996, the sources said. Any indictment would have to be issued by a grand jury after being presented with evidence in the case.
News that the United States was looking to indict Castro came hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe led a delegation to Havana on May 14 to deliver a message from President Donald Trump to Cuban officials and Raúl "Raulito" Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, who is the elder Castro's grandson.
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The potential indictment for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, now 94, and the charges were first reported by CBS News.
The 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue remains one of the most politically charged episodes in modern U.S.-Cuba relations – and one in which some U.S. officials are still pressing for criminal accountability three decades later.
Those officials – mostly Republican lawmakers – are targeting Raúl Castro, the younger brother of Fidel Castro, for his alleged role in the case.
Tensions between the United States and Cuba have focused on the incident for decades, but the potential for indictments of Cuban officials gained new momentum this year after Trump ordered a snatch-and-grab operation on Venezuela's then-president Nicolás Maduro. Ever since, Trump has warned that Cuba is next, hinting at potential military action.
The United States has simultaneously put the squeeze on Havana through an oil blockade that's exacerbated the communist island's energy crisis. The Trump administration hopes the increasingly severe measures will force the Cuban regime to make vast political and societal reforms.
What happened in 1996
On Feb. 24, 1996, two planes operated by a humanitarian group were patrolling the Florida Straits looking for endangered Cuban rafters trying to reach U.S. shores when they were shot down by Cuban Air Force MiG fighter jets.
Fidel Castro claimed the planes violated Cuban airspace.
The U.S. Congress would later conclude that Brothers to the Rescue “were flying unarmed and defenseless planes in a mission identical to hundreds they have flown since 1991 and posed no threat whatsoever to the Cuban Government, the Cuban military, or the Cuban people.”
At the time, Raúl Castro was Cuba’s defense minister and head of the Cuban armed forces. He has been widely viewed as the operational commander of the country’s military and intelligence apparatus at the time of the shootdown.
On Feb. 13, 2026, four U.S. lawmakers, led by Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, asked Trump to indict Castro as a way of addressing “a longstanding injustice that, under your leadership, your administration is uniquely positioned to resolve once and for all.”
The lawmakers said Castro was “responsible for the cold-blooded murders of three Americans and a U.S. permanent resident” in the downing of the planes.
“It is our understanding, based on public information, that on February 24, 1996, Raul Castro ordered a Cuban Mig fighter jet to engage and obliterate two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft over international waters,” said the letter to Trump, which was also signed by Republican Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez, both of Florida, and Nicole Malliotakis, of New York.
The four lawmakers laid out a series of facts about the case, including a Time interview with Fidel Castro that they said provided significant evidence “regarding Raul Castro’s complicity in the crime.”
Over time, the incident evolved into both a criminal prosecution and a counterintelligence effort by U.S. officials against the Cuban government and Cuban intelligence operatives in Miami, Florida.
Former President Bill Clinton implemented sweeping sanctions against the island in response to the incident. And a federal grand jury indicted two Cuban fighter pilots and a commanding Cuban Air Force general in the murders of the four Brothers to the Rescue volunteers.
The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US takes steps to indict former Cuban leader Raúl Castro
