Raúl Castro Indicted in US on Murder Charges

Former Cuban president Raúl Castro has been indicted in the United States on murder charges in a major escalation in Washington's pressure campaign against the island's communist government.

Mr Castro, 94, last appeared in public in Cuba earlier this month, and there is no evidence that he has since left the island or that the government would allow him to be extradited.

The indictment against the former president, returned in federal court in Miami on April 23, charges him with one count of conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft, court records show.

Five other people are also named as defendants in the case.

The charges stemmed from a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles, US acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at an event in downtown Miami on Wednesday to honour victims of the incident.

Members of Miami's large Cuban American community gathered outside the city's Freedom Tower ahead of the ceremony.

'We all hoped for a long time, for many years, that this would happen,' said Bobby Ramirez, a 62-year-old musician who left Cuba in 1971 when he was seven years old.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the indictment against his predecessor represented a 'political manoeuvre devoid of any legal foundation' by the US.

The indictment comes as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a regime change in Cuba where Mr Castro's communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.

A US Justice Department official told Reuters last week on the condition of anonymity that the charges against him are expected to be based on a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles.

In a statement published on Wednesday, local time, Mr Trump called Cuba a 'rogue state harbouring hostile foreign military' and framed his administration's actions regarding the Caribbean 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,' the US president said at a Coast Guard Academy event in New London, Connecticut.

The Cuban president said on Monday that the island nation does not represent a threat.

The indictment marks a new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals.

After taking power Fidel Castro struck an alliance with the Soviet Union, then seized US-owned businesses and properties. The US has since maintained an economic embargo on the nation of about 10 million.

The two sides have talked intermittently over the years.

Diplomatic relations briefly improved during former Democratic president Barack Obama's second term. But Mr Trump, a Republican, has taken a harder line.

Under Mr Trump the US has effectively imposed a blockade on Cuba by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and exacerbating its worst crisis in decades.

The Trump administration's pressure campaign against the island nation echoes the one it led against Venezuela which ultimately resulted in US forces detaining its president Nicolas Maduro.

Mr Maduro is now in New York where he is awaiting trial for multiple offences, including narco-terrorism.

In a video message addressed to the Cuban people on Wednesday morning, local time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents were Cuban immigrants to the United States, offered to forge a new relationship between the two countries.

He said the US could provide $US100 million ($139 million) in aid, and blamed Cuba's leaders for shortages of electricity, food and fuel.

In response, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called Mr Rubio 'the mouthpiece of corrupt and vengeful interests' but did not rule out accepting the aid.

'He keeps talking about an aid package of 100 million dollars that Cuba has not rejected, but whose cynicism is evident to anyone in light of the devastating effect of the economic blockade and the energy stranglehold,' Mr Rodriguez wrote in a post on X.