The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, stated this Tuesday that the arrest warrant issued in Florida against Raúl Castro is politically motivated in relation to the upcoming elections in November in the United States, an interpretation that aligns with the arguments used by the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel to dismiss the judicial action.
"He's a politician, he's a politician, and it also relates to the election in November —that's my point of view— and the votes they want to win from one side and the other," the leader stated during her morning press conference on October 20, when asked about the new order against the former Cuban ruler.
His statements come just one day after Florida's Attorney General, James Uthmeier, publicly announced the arrest warrant against Castro for his alleged involvement in the downing of two civilian aircraft from Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.
Florida accuses Raúl Castro of the downing of the planes
The arrest warrant was signed on October 16 by Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, president of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, and includes the detention of the former Cuban leader, who is 95 years old, without the right to bail.
Castro is facing a state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder related to the attack on February 24, 1996, when Cuban Air Force MiG aircraft shot down two planes from Brothers to the Rescue over international waters in the Florida Straits.
In the attack, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, Armando Alejandre Jr., and Pablo Morales were killed; they were members of the organization dedicated to locating and assisting Cuban rafters.
The investigation maintains that Castro, who was then serving as the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, was involved in the chain of command related to the authorization of the attack.
The judicial documentation includes information about Cuban intelligence agents infiltrated in Brothers to the Rescue and a recording from June 1996 in which Castro describes the orders given regarding the aircraft.
The state order constitutes a judicial avenue independent of the federal charges filed in May 2026, which also holds the former ruler and other former Cuban military responsible for the downing.
In May, after the U.S. Department of Justice made the federal charges public, Sheinbaum questioned why Washington would revisit a case from three decades ago.
"What sense does it make to accuse someone at this moment for something that happened 30 years ago?" he then asked during another morning conference.
Sheinbaum agrees with Díaz-Canel in pointing out an electoral backdrop
The words of the Mexican president align with the interpretation circulated from Havana hours after the new arrest warrant was announced.
On Monday, Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly defended Raúl Castro and described the decision as "repudiable."
In a message posted on Facebook, the Cuban leader described the measure as a "pathetic Miami circus with an electoral backdrop" and argued that it lacked legal and practical sense.
The reaction was supported by other officials from Havana, including Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío, who also questioned the actions of the U.S. authorities.
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