Florida issues arrest warrant for Cuban leader Raul Castro

Florida, in the southeastern United States, has issued an arrest warrant for 95-year-old former Cuban leader Raul Castro.

The move comes as US authorities step up pressure on the government in Havana.

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State Attorney General James Uthmeier said on Monday that the warrant was based on criminal charges over Castro’s alleged role in ordering two unarmed aircraft to be shot down in 1996.

The aircraft were affiliated with Brothers to the Rescue, a Florida-based group that helps Cubans fleeing the country. Four people were killed in the attack.

Castro faces state-level charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Florida.

“Raul Castro ordered the murder of four Floridians in cold blood, and Florida will never stop pursuing accountability for that communist conspiracy,” Uthmeier wrote in a news release.

He said the arrest warrant was necessary accountability for the lives lost. “Thirty years later, we are still fighting for justice for Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Pena, and Armando Alejandre Jr.”

The decision to shoot down the two small twin-engine planes has been the subject of renewed controversy over the last year, as Republican President Donald Trump seeks to oust Cuba’s communist leaders.

The attack took place on February 24, 1996. US authorities say the planes were flying over international waters and received no warning before they were shot down.

Cuban officials, meanwhile, have argued that previous Brothers to the Rescue flights had breached the country’s airspace, despite warnings to stay away.

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Castro, now 95 years old, was Cuba’s defence minister at the time of the attack. A key figure in the Communist Party of Cuba, he later became president of the island in 2008, replacing his brother, the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

Though he retired from the presidency in 2018, Raul Castro and his family remain powerful figures in Cuba’s government.

Since the start of the year, the Trump administration has signalled it would like to see regime change in Cuba.

To trigger such change, the administration has tightened US restrictions on the island, including by imposing a de facto energy blockade in January.

By threatening steep tariffs against any country that supplies Cuba with oil, the US has effectively barred fuel exports to the country, according to experts.

That, in turn, has caused deteriorating conditions on the island and strained the country’s already meagre power system, which relies heavily on fossil fuels. Only 40 percent of Cuba’s oil is produced domestically.

Additional sanctions have been placed on Cuba’s economy, limiting its state-run industries.

But in May, the Trump administration unveiled a superseding indictment also targeting Raul Castro for the 1996 plane downings.

It charges Castro with federal crimes including conspiracy to kill US nationals, destroying aircraft and four counts of murder.

The Trump administration issued a statement in support of Florida’s actions against Castro on Monday.

“We’re committed to pursuing every lawful, prosecutable avenue to bring accountability, including parallel federal and state prosecutions,” US Attorney Jason Reding Quinones said.

“Our historic federal indictment laid the groundwork, and James [Uthmeier] and his team have now taken the important step of bringing charges under Florida law.”

Trump has previously used indictments to justify military operations targeting government leaders that are at odds with the US, including former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.