Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted on Monday with a message on Facebook to defend Raúl Castro hours after Florida's Attorney General, 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 "reprehensible" and characterized it as a "pathetic Miami circus with an electoral backdrop" that, according to him, "lacks and will never have the slightest legal or practical sense".
He also added that it is "a legal dressing maneuver orchestrated by anti-Cuban politicians" that "deserves our firm condemnation."
The regime's response was coordinated. Chancellor 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."
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 "show staged 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 filed on May 20 by the Department of Justice, which indicted Castro and five other former Cuban military personnel on seven charges related to the downing of two aircraft from Brothers to the Rescue on February 24, 1996, an incident that resulted in the deaths of four men whose bodies were never recovered.
Uthmeier emphasized a key difference regarding the federal process this Monday: no U.S. president can grant pardons for state crimes in Florida. “If a communist sympathizer were to return to the White House, he cannot forgive, cannot commute, cannot immunize these dictators from our state proceedings,” 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 charges were 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 rally in front of the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of Raúl, starred in that event with defiant phrases: "nobody is going to kidnap him" and "she says they were coming today, we are here waiting for them." However, Raúl Castro did not appear publicly, which triggered 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 aircraft.
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