Trump administration blames Cuba’s Raul Castro for shooting down plane in 1996 | Articles of Controversy

Prosecutors in the United States say they are accusing former Cuban leader Raul Castro of the 1996 downing of planes by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue.

The case, which was not updated on Wednesday, is one of the most dangerous between Washington and Havana in years.

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The US Justice Department alleges that Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time, led the decision to have Cuban warplanes shoot down two civilian airliners on February 24, 1996.

Castro has been charged with one count of attempted murder of US citizens, four counts of murder and two counts of destroying an airplane.

Four people were killed in the 1996 attack, which sparked international condemnation and heightened tensions between the US and Cuba.

The Rescue brothers started working in 1991 when Cubans immigrated to the United States.

Founded by Cuban exile Jose Basulto, the group wanted to help Cuban refugees cross the Florida Straits by finding rafts at sea and alerting the US Coast Guard.

US officials and international investigators say the planes were attacked over international waters, while Cuba has maintained that the plane violated or came close to Cuban airspace.

President Fidel Castro later denied that he or Raul Castro had directly ordered the downing of the planes.

Castro’s opposition leads to pressure in Havana

Orlando Perez, a political science professor at the University of North Texas in Dallas, told Al Jazeera that the timing of the charges appears to coincide with the US’s coercive campaign against Havana.

“I think it’s important to look at what has happened recently,” Perez said.

He also reported on a visit last week from the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, to Havana.

The meeting came as part of ongoing talks between the island’s communist government and the administration of US President Donald Trump, who has pushed for a change in leadership in Cuba.

There were also reports this month that Cuba had tested drone and asymmetric weapons, as Trump stepped up his campaign against the island.

According to reports, Havana decided to attack the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, US warships and the nearby island of Key West, Florida, which is 140 kilometers (90 miles) off the coast of Cuba.

“Washington seems to be running two tracks at once: behind the Castro family network, and a campaign of coercion,” Perez said. “The case of Raul Castro is related to the construction.”

Perez added that Castro’s move could create tension, strengthening support among the Cuban communists rather than weakening them.

“Raul Castro’s case emboldens the brave and gives them the narrative they’ve always relied on,” he said.

“The Castro family will not defeat Raul Castro. Raul Castro is the official anchor of the government.”

But Perez indicated that the Trump administration may have another reason for revealing the decision.

Trump’s Republican Party faces the midterm elections in November, and Trump’s approval rating continues to slide.

A poll from Reuters news agency and research firm Ipsos, published this month showed Trump’s support at the lowest level since he returned to office. Only 34 percent of respondents approved of his work.

Perez explained that Trump’s vote came in the face of public concerns about the US-Israeli war in Iran and other issues.

If Wednesday’s hearing pushes the Cuban government to commit fraud, the Trump administration could frame it as a victory.

“At the moment he is struggling now – given his approval rating, which is very low, and the prospect of losing seats in the mid-term elections, and the situation in Iran, which is still difficult and unresolved – I think that the pressure campaign is there and they hope that this will lead to a valid agreement,” said Perez.

But Perez added that this could be a long time coming. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”

Castro, 94, succeeded his brother Fidel Castro as President of Cuba in 2008. Although he will step down from the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba in 2021, he remains a prominent figure in the country’s political scene.

The Cuban government has not commented on the case.

Separately, the White House also issued a words Wednesday marks the founding of Cuba on May 20, 1902. They called the current communist leadership of the island “a true betrayal of the country whose patriots have bled and died”.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, he answered on social media that the message was “superficial and uninformed”.

The Trump administration’s statement, he wrote, “is an insult to the people of #Cuban and a reflection of the neocolonial nostalgia that continues among those in power in this government”.