Fidel Castro's younger yet equally communist brother may well find himself in hot water with the American federal justice system. Late on Tuesday, reports surfaced that the Trump administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking an indictment of Raúl Castro. The specifics aren't yet known, but any charges are expected to arise from the 1996 shooting down of two aircraft belonging to the Miami-based Cuban exile group, Brothers to the Rescue. Raúl Castro was Cuba's Minister of Defense at that time.
The DOJ is declining comment, for now, but a press conference is set for Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is expected to indict former Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
Fox News additionally learned that a scheduled press conference in Miami on Wednesday is in connection with efforts to indict the former communist leader Raul Castro, per law enforcement sources familiar with the situation.
When asked whether Castro would be indicted, a DOJ Office of Public Affairs Director Emily Covington told Fox News Digital the department would not "comment on rumors."
An Associated Press report from three "anonymous sources" named the shootdown as the possible source of the charges - and notes that a grand jury would be required to issue any actual indictments.
One of the people told the AP that the potential indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro was defense minister at the time.
All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. The Cuban government did not respond to a request for comment on the potential indictment, which was reported earlier by CBS.
Any criminal charge against Castro, which would need to be approved by a grand jury, would dramatically escalate tensions with Havana and ramp up expectations of U.S. military action in Cuba like the one carried out in January in Venezuela to bring President Nicolàs Maduro to New York on drug trafficking charges.
If such an indictment is issued, Raúl Castro, who is 94 years of age, may be facing some sleepless nights.
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While we might wonder just what the United States has to gain by indicting a 94-year-old man who likely has trouble remembering what he had for breakfast that morning or who Karl Marx was, this is part of the general pressure campaign that the Trump administration is laying on Cuba. With the history of Venezuela's strongman dictator Nicolás Maduro staring Cuba in the face, and the possibility that American Death Stalkers may be about to deliver a world of hurt to Cuba and whisk the withered, geriatric commie off to face an American court, it seems unlikely that the United States will have to do anything with that indictment. It's enough of a gain for Cuba to know such an indictment has been issued to keep them worried, to keep their lookouts posted, and to distract them from the fact that their nation is falling into an economic black hole.
If the Trump administration is playing 4D chess with Cuba, this may well put them in "Check."
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