Former Cuban President Raul Castro was indicted in the United States on Wednesday in a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Cuba’s communist government.
Prior to the indictment’s formal unsealing, a request by the Justice Department emerged on the federal court docket asking for an indictment against Castro and five others to be unsealed. The docket did not include descriptions of the charges.
The indictment, which was set to be formally addressed at a DOJ event in Miami honoring victims of the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown on Wednesday, marks one of the rare instances in modern U.S. history in which a former foreign head of state has faced criminal prosecution in a United States court.
Federal prosecutors are expected to accuse Castro, 94, of playing a role in the Feb. 24, 1996, downing of two civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban MiG fighter jets fired missiles at the planes, killing all four men aboard, including three U.S. citizens.
Castro, the brother of the late Fidel Castro, who ran Cuba as a communist state for decades, was serving as Cuba’s defense minister at the time of the incident. The Cuban government has long defended the attack as a lawful response to alleged violations of Cuban airspace, although the United States condemned the strike and later tightened sanctions on Havana.
From 2008 to 2011, Castro ran Cuba as the leader of the country’s Communist Party. He stepped down from those positions more than a decade ago but maintains a role in Cuba’s national assembly.
The indictment comes as President Donald Trump has intensified efforts to isolate Cuba economically and politically while openly signaling support for regime change on the island.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump declared that “America will not tolerate a rogue state harboring hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations just ninety miles from the American homeland.”
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 20, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also posted a video message on Wednesday, speaking in Spanish, addressing the people of Cuba with an offer to begin a new relationship, adding that the U.S. could provide up to $100 million in aid.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez responded to Rubio, calling him “the mouthpiece of corrupt and vengeful interests,” but did not address the aid offer.
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The move also recalls the Trump administration’s earlier indictment of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which preceded a U.S. operation that brought Maduro to New York to face criminal charges.
Cuban officials did not immediately comment after the indictment Wednesday, although President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned earlier this week that any U.S. military action against Cuba would lead to a “bloodbath.”