New Delhi, May 21: A United States court has indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro on murder charges, amid increasing tensions between Washington and Havana.
The indictment comes as US President Donald Trump has pushed for regime change in Cuba, where the Communist leadership has remained in power since Raul Castro’s late brother, Fidel Castro, led the 1959 revolution.
Castro, 94, last appeared in public in Cuba earlier this month, and there is no indication that he has left the island since then or that the Cuban government would permit his extradition.
Details of the charges were not immediately available. However, reports suggest the indictment is linked to a 1996 incident in which Cuban fighter jets shot down aircraft operated by a group of Cuban exiles.
Trump recently described Cuba as a “rogue state harboring hostile foreign military” and framed his administration’s actions toward the island as part of a broader effort to expand US influence in the Western Hemisphere.
“From the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment,” Trump said during a Coast Guard Academy event in New London, Connecticut.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that Cuba does not pose a threat.
The indictment marks a new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals.
