WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders from South Florida will make the case for indicting former Cuban President Raul Castro this week.
Republican Reps. Mario Diaz Balart (FL-26,) María Elvira Salazar (FL-27), and Carlos A. Giménez (FL-28) will hold a press conference in Washington Wednesday to argue in favor of bringing the charges against Castro. They will be joined by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY.) In February, the same group of lawmakers signed a letter to the Department of Justice urging the indictment.
Last week, sources close to the matter revealed federal prosecutors were preparing to bring charges against the 94-year-old Castro in connection to the 1996 shootdown of two planes from the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue.
The attack on the two civilian planes sparked international outrage. The aircraft were shot down by a Cuban fighter jet outside of Cuban airspace, killing four people. At the time, Castro was the leader of the Cuban armed forces.
In 2011, he would become president of Cuba’s communist government, a position he served in until 2021. Despite being retired, Castro is widely believed to still hold immense power and influence behind the scenes.
The looming indictment against Castro comes as tensions rise between the U.S. and Cuba. For months, the U.S. has blocked virtually all oil from reaching Cuban shores, triggering the island’s worst energy crisis in decades. Last week, the communist government announced it had officially run out of fuel.
In the last year, the Trump administration has increasingly leaned into military power to achieve its foreign policy goals. In January, U.S. forces entered Venezuela to capture President Nicolas Maduro, who was facing a federal indictment. Maduro is now being held in a federal jail in New York City facing charges for alleged narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and weapons offenses.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the U.S. could stage what he calls a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, raising questions about a possible military intervention.
On Sunday, Axios reported the Cuban government had acquired more than 300 military drones and developed plans to use them against U.S. targets, including the military base at Guantanamo Bay and possibly Key West.
Speaking to Local 10’s “This Week in South Florida” over the weekend, Gimenez, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, said he had not yet been briefed on the reported drone threat from Cuba, but emphasized the communist government has always been hostile to U.S. security and interests.
“What we know is that Cuba has always been a national security threat,” Gimenez said. “Everything in the state of Florida is inside the range of those drones.”
Axios reported the presence of the drones could serve as a pretext to U.S. military action against Cuba.
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