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Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, posted a response on X this Thursday to the report by Politico magazine which claims that the Pentagon has troops and weaponry ready in the Caribbean to act against Cuba, and that only the final approval from President Donald Trump is missing.
The official accused the American publication of "inciting war against Cuba" and posed a rhetorical question that sums up the regime's position: "Isn't there a missing reason to justify killing, mutilating, causing destruction and misery, while also risking one's own lives?"
The question, however, takes on a meaning that Fernández de Cossío likely did not intend: the "motive" that Washington might be constructing is precisely the federal indictment against Raúl Castro, declassified on May 20 for the downing of two planes from Hermanos al Rescate in 1996, which resulted in the deaths of four Cuban-Americans.
The charges against the former dictator include conspiracy to assassinate U.S. citizens, destruction of aircraft, and four individual counts of murder for the deaths of Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, which occurred on February 24, 1996.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Castro as a "fugitive from American justice" and did not rule out bringing him to the U.S. by force, drawing an explicit parallel to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro in January 2026.
The report from Politico, authored by journalist Paul McLeary, details that the strike group of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz entered the Caribbean on May 20 —the same day the charges against Castro were declassified— along with destroyers and guided missile cruisers capable of targeting land objectives.
Mark Cancian, senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), noted that the Nimitz is "mainly for intimidation, although it could be used in a military operation if necessary," and he was blunt about the objectives: "Raúl Castro would be its primary target."
The USS Kearsarge, with 2,500 Marines on board was off the coast of Virginia yesterday preparing for a new deployment to the Caribbean.
Rubio was emphatic on Wednesday during a cabinet meeting: "Cuba is in serious trouble. Having a failed state just 145 kilometers from our shores poses a threat to the national security of the United States."
The regime responded on multiple fronts. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla spoke before the UN Security Council on Wednesday and urged Secretary-General António Guterres to halt what he described as a "military aggression" that "would lead to a bloodbath."
Fernández de Cossío himself described the Trump administration on Wednesday as "criminal" for carrying out "a coldly calculated plan to induce a humanitarian crisis in Cuba."
From Puerto Rico, Brigadier General Arthur Garffer anticipated on Wednesday a significant increase in American military presence and stated, "We are possibly witnessing the end of the Cuban communist dictatorial regime in the coming weeks."
The U.S. Senate rejected on April 28 by a vote of 51-47 a resolution put forward by Democratic senators to limit Trump's ability to take military action against Cuba without Congressional authorization, leaving the president with broad powers to act.
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