HAVANA, Cuba. — Thousands of people crowded along Havana’s famed seawall Friday to decry the U.S. indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro.
Attendees included his daughter, Mariela Castro, and his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro. Salsa songs with biting anti-Trump lyrics were booming across the old city.
“Who do they think they are to judge Raúl?” Gerardo Hernández asked as the crowd cheered.
He’s one of five Cubans accused of being a spy who was imprisoned and later released by the U.S. in 2014.
“For the United States, the law is a tailor-made suit,” he said before punching the air with this fist, to a shout of “Viva Raúl!”
The crowd responded to his call: “Homeland or death, we will vanquish!”
President Donald Trump on Thursday said past U.S. presidents have mulled intervening in Cuba for decades, but “it looks like I’ll be the one that does it.”
He’d suggested the opposite a day earlier, however, saying further escalation isn’t necessary after federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters separately that the Trump administration wants to resolve differences with Cuba peacefully, but is doubtful the U.S. can reach a diplomatic resolution with the island’s current government.
The Castro indictment has led many to believe that the administration is following the same playbook it did when it ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
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