Trump administration prepares to seek Raúl Castro indictment as it
pressures Cuba, AP sources say
[May 16, 2026]
By JOSHUA GOODMAN, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER
MIAMI (AP) — The Justice Department is preparing to seek an indictment
against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, three people familiar with
the matter told The Associated Press on Friday, as President Donald
Trump threatens possible military action against the communist-run
island.
One of the people told the AP that the potential indictment is connected
to Castro's alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated
by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro was
defense minister at the time.
All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they
weren't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. The Cuban
government did not respond to a request for comment on the potential
indictment, which was reported earlier by CBS.
Any criminal charge against Castro, which would need to be approved by a
grand jury, would dramatically escalate tensions with Havana and ramp up
expectations of U.S. military action in Cuba like the one carried out in
January in Venezuela to bring President Nicolàs Maduro to New York on
drug trafficking charges.
Following Maduro’s ouster, the Trump administration quickly turned its
attention to his ally Cuba and ordered an economic blockade that choked
off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages
and a collapse in economic activity across the island.
Iran war gave Cuba a breather
The U.S. war in Iran appeared to have given Cuban leaders something of a
reprieve from U.S. talk of regime change.
As Trump seeks to wind down that conflict, speculation has been growing
that he may soon turn his attention back to Cuba after pledging earlier
this year a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership didn’t
open up its economy to American investment and kick out U.S.
adversaries.
Richard Feinberg, a professor emeritus specializing in Latin America at
the University of California-San Diego, said that any indictment of
Castro will play well with voters in south Florida but is unlikely to
persuade career war planners in the Pentagon to pursue a second war of
choice — this time just 90 miles from Florida.
“There’s no easy Venezuela copy,” said Feinberg. “There's no clear line
of succession and it's hard to imagine regime change without U.S. boots
on the ground.”
The AP reported in March that the U.S. Attorney in Miami had created a
special working group of prosecutors and federal law enforcement to
build cases against top Cuban officials amid calls by several south
Florida Republicans to reopen its investigation into Castro’s alleged
role in the 1996 shootdown.
Trump calls Cuba ‘a declining country’
Trump declined to discuss a potential indictment on Friday, deferring to
the Justice Department.
“But they need help, as you know, and you talk about a declining country
— they are really a nation or a country in decline, so we’re going to
see,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We have a lot to talk
about on Cuba, but not maybe for today.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials, including Castro’s
grandson, during a high-level visit to the island on Thursday.
Castro, 94, took over as president from his ailing brother, Fidel
Castro, in 2011, and then handed power to a handpicked loyalist, Miguel
Díaz-Canel, in 2019.
While he largely has avoided the spotlight since retiring in 2021 as
head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power
behind the scenes, a fact underscored by the prominence of his grandson,
Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who previously met secretly with U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Former Cuban President Raul Castro looks at the Cuban flag during
his speech at the event celebrating the 65th anniversary of the
triumph of the revolution in Santiago, Cuba, Jan. 1, 2024. (AP
Photo/Ismael Francisco, File)
Florida straits shootdown a watershed moment in Cuba-U.S.
relations
Cuba's shootdown in 1996 of two Cessna aircraft operated by the
Brothers to the Rescue was a watershed moment in decades of
hostilities between the two countries.
At the time, President Bill Clinton had been cautiously exploring
ways to reduce tensions with a Cold War adversary but faced stiff
opposition from exiles who organized publicity-seeking flyovers of
Havana, dropping anti-Castro leaflets, and aiding Cuban rafters
fleeing economic deprivation and single-party rule.
The Cubans had warned the U.S. government for months that it was
prepared to defend against what it considered deliberate
provocations. But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 26, 1996,
missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two
unarmed civilian Cessna planes just beyond Cuba's airspace,
according to an investigation conducted by the International Civil
Aviation Organization. A third plane, carrying the organization’s
leader, narrowly escaped.
“With hindsight, it appears the Castros' motive was to slow down the
Clinton outreach because they needed the U.S. as an external enemy
to justify their national security posture,” said Richard Fienberg,
who worked on Cuban issues at the National Security Council at the
time.
They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, said Feinberg.
Shortly after the shootdown, Congress passed what became known as
the Helms-Burton Act, which codified a U.S. trade embargo enacted in
1962 and made it far more complicated for successive U.S. presidents
to engage with Cuba.
To date, the U.S. has convicted only a single person of conspiracy
to commit murder in connection with the Brothers to the Rescue
shootdown. Gerardo Hernández, the leader of a Cuban espionage ring
dismantled by the FBI in the 1990s, was sentenced to life in prison
but was released by President Barack Obama during a prisoner swap in
2014 as part of an attempt to normalize relations with Cuba.
Two fighter jet pilots and their commanding officer have also been
indicted but are outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement while
living in Cuba.
Castro previously investigated for drug trafficking
Castro has been under U.S. criminal investigation before. In 1993,
federal prosecutors in Miami considered charging him and several
other senior Cuban military officials with cocaine trafficking based
on testimony from Colombian traffickers that emerged in the drug
trial of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, the AP reported in
2006.
But an indictment never followed amid concerns about the witness’
credibility as well as fears that it could risk U.S. intelligence
operations and derail Clinton’s tentative outreach.
___
Tucker and Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press
writer Collin Binkley contributed.
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