Federal prosecutors in Miami on May 20 unsealed a murder indictment charging former Cuban President Raúl Castro in connection with Cuba’s 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR), killing four people.

Castro, 94, was charged with one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft, alongside five co-defendants. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges at a ceremony at Miami’s Freedom Tower.

“For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in this country for acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens,” Blanche said.

The indictment was sealed April 23, nearly three weeks before CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Castro’s grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, and Cuban intelligence officials in Havana on May 14.

A CIA official confirmed Ratcliffe delivered Trump’s message that the U.S. would engage “only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”

The sequencing mirrors the approach used before U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on January 3, 2026.

🇺🇸🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/nwEePVJ1lX

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 20, 2026

The February 24, 1996, shootdown killed Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, over waters the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) later determined were international.

The indictment describes Operation Scorpion, an alleged Cuban intelligence effort that used the Wasp Network, a Florida-based spy ring, to pass BTTR flight data to Cuban military planners ahead of the attack.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the charges as “a political maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation.” Blanche declined to specify how Castro would face trial, saying a warrant had been issued and the defendant would appear “by his own will or by another way.”