Mariela Castro, daughter of Army General Raúl Castro, stated this Friday at the Anti-imperialist Tribune in Havana that her father reacts with a smile to the formal charges brought by the United States Department of Justice, and warned that any attempt to capture him “will backfire on them.”
The statements were made at the end of a mass event summoned by the Cuban regime in front of the U.S. embassy, in response to the criminal charges announced on May 20 —Cuba's Independence Day— at the Freedom Tower in Miami.
In an interview with BreakThrough News, Mariela Castro was emphatic: "My father will die fighting if necessary." She added that, according to what he has conveyed to her, "no one will take me alive; they will take me while I'm fighting."
Regarding Raúl Castro's reaction to the news, his daughter described an attitude of calm: "When something has been mentioned to him, he smiles. As an old guerilla fighter who knows he is safe, with one foot in the stirrup, and that no one is going to kidnap him."
Mariela Castro described the accusation from the United States as a "blatant lie" and issued a direct challenge to Washington from the podium: “They say they were coming today, we are waiting for them here”, referring to rumors about a possible U.S. military operation similar to the one that brought former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to justice in that country in January 2026.
He also dismissed any personal fears: "No one is going to kidnap him. I can assure you of that. Neither him nor anyone else."
Regarding the pressures from the United States on Cuba, Mariela Castro assured that the regime does not let itself be intimidated.
"All the excuses they've used have backfired on them. They are trying to escalate the situation, making it more serious, more exaggerated, and more dramatic, but it's going to backfire on them again," he said.
The indictment, approved by a federal grand jury for the Southern District of Florida on April 23, 2026, includes charges of conspiracy to murder American citizens, destruction of civil aircraft, and four counts of homicide related to the shooting down of the planes from Hermanos al Rescate on February 24, 1996. Along with Raúl Castro, five other former Cuban military personnel have been charged.
Raúl Castro, at 94 years, did not appear at the event this Friday. Cuba has no extradition treaty with the United States, which makes the accusation largely symbolic, although Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to him as a "fugitive" and, when asked about a possible capture operation, responded: "I'm not going to talk about how we would bring him here."
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