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The Trump administration hinted that Raúl Castro could be captured in a manner similar to Nicolás Maduro, according to a report by The Telegraph following the announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice, which unsealed an expanded criminal indictment against the former Cuban leader and five former military officials from the regime for the downing of two civilian aircraft belonging to Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.
The acting attorney general Todd Blanche was the one who, according to the British media, seemed to suggest the possibility of a capture similar to the one that removed Maduro from Caracas on January 3rd.
"For the first time in almost 70 years, the senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been accused in the United States of acts of violence that resulted in the deaths of American citizens. President Trump and this Department of Justice are committed to restoring a simple principle: if you kill Americans, we will pursue you. No matter who you are. No matter what title you hold," Blanche said.
The indictment, issued by a federal grand jury in Miami on April 23 and declassified on Wednesday, charges Castro Ruz, aged 94 years, with conspiracy to assassinate U.S. citizens, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder for the deaths of Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.
Alongside Castro Ruz, the accused include Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, and Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, the latter already in U.S. custody awaiting sentencing for immigration fraud.
According to the accusation, since the early 1990s, Cuban intelligence agents infiltrated the humanitarian organization based in Miami and relayed detailed information about its flights to the Cuban government, data that was used to plan the attack on February 24, 1996.
That day, three small planes from Brothers to the Rescue took off from Opa-locka Airport. Cuban military fighter jets under the command of Raúl Castro, who was then the Minister of Defense, shot down two of them—registered N2456S and N5485S—in international airspace with air-to-air missiles, without prior warning.
The FBI Director, Kash Patel, emphasized the historical significance of the moment. "For 30 years these families have waited for answers, and this FBI has never forgotten."
The announcement took place at a ceremony in the Freedom Tower of Miami, featuring Blanche, Patel, Senator Ashley Moody, federal prosecutor Jason A. Reding Quiñones, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.
The precedent that makes the insinuation about Castro so significant is Operation Absolute Resolution, carried out on January 3, 2026, in which U.S. military forces extracted Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas to face federal drug terrorism charges in New York.
Meanwhile, Díaz-Canel came to Raúl Castro's defense following the announcement of the accusation, and the Cuban regime described the case as a "deception" and a "political maneuver without legal basis."
If convicted, Castro Ruz faces the maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment for the charges of murder and conspiracy, as stated in the federal indictment.
Prosecutor Reding Quiñones summed it up accurately: "The passage of time does not erase the murder. It does not diminish the value of these lives. And it does not weaken our commitment to the rule of law."
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