Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted on Monday with a message on Facebook to defend Raúl Castro hours after the Attorney General of Florida, James Uthmeier, announced a state arrest warrant without bail against the 95-year-old former Cuban leader for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
The Cuban leader described the action as "deplorable" and characterized it as "a pathetic Miami circus with an electoral backdrop" that, according to him, "has no, and will never have, the slightest legal or practical significance."
He also added that it is a “legal maneuver orchestrated by anti-Cuban politicians” that “deserves our firm condemnation.”
The regime's response was coordinated. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla condemned the action on the social media platform X and described Cuban-American politicians as "parasites" who "deceive and scam their followers."
In turn, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío referred to it as a "maneuver with a legal disguise" and linked it to what he described as a "staged spectacle at the UN by the American representative."
The state order was signed by Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, president of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, and is independent of the federal charges brought on May 20 by the Department of Justice, which charged Castro and five other former Cuban military members with seven counts related to the downing of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft on February 24, 1996, resulting in the deaths of four men whose bodies were never recovered.
Uthmeier emphasized this Monday a key difference regarding the federal process: no U.S. president can grant pardons for state crimes in Florida. “If a communist sympathizer were to return to the White House, they cannot grant clemency, they cannot commute sentences, they cannot shield these dictators from our state procedures,” he warned.
The prosecutor also warned that Castro would not be able to travel to any country with extradition agreements with the U.S. without the risk of being arrested, "not even to receive medical treatment".
It is not the first time that the regime has deployed this type of response. When the federal accusation was made public in May, the propaganda machinery was activated immediately: Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz called it a "farce," the Council of State and the National Assembly issued formal condemnations, and the regime called for a demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of Raúl, starred in that event with defiant phrases: "No one is going to kidnap him" and "she says they were coming today, and here we are waiting for them." However, Raúl Castro did not appear publicly, which sparked mockery on social media.
The Florida Prosecutor's Office warned that the investigation remains open and that additional charges could be brought against others involved in the downing of the planes.
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