Former Cuban president Raúl Castro has been indicted in the USA on murder charges, court records showed on Wednesday, in a serious escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against the island’s communist government.
Cuba’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Castro, 94, last appeared in public in Cuba earlier this month, and there is no such thing as a evidence that he has since left the island or that the federal government would allow him to be extradited.
The indictment comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a regime change in Cuba, where Castro’s communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
The small print of the costs weren’t immediately available. A U.S. Justice Department official told Reuters last week on the condition of anonymity that the costs against him are expected to be based on a 1996 incident through which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a bunch of Cuban exiles.
Trump in a press release earlier on Wednesday called Cuba a “rogue state harboring hostile foreign military” and framed his administration’s actions regarding the Caribbean island as a part of a broader effort to expand U.S. influence within the Western Hemisphere.
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“From the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we are going to drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment,” Trump said at a Coast Guard Academy event in Recent London, Connecticut.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that the island doesn’t represent a threat.
The indictment marks a brand new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals.
After taking power, Fidel Castro struck an alliance with the Soviet Union, then seized U.S.-owned businesses and properties. The U.S. has since maintained an economic embargo on the nation of about 10 million.
The 2 sides have talked intermittently through the years. Diplomatic relations briefly improved during former Democratic President Barack Obama’s second term, but Trump, a Republican, has taken a harder line.