U.S. To Indict Cuba’s Raúl Castro For Downing Of Civilian Planes In 1996: Report

The U.S. is expected to indict former Cuban President Raúl Castro on Wednesday for the downing of two civilian planes in 1996, different media outlets reported.

NBC News cited two anonymous Justice Department officials who said the 94-year-old would likely be indicted in Miami.

Castro and his brother Fidel were accused of ordering that the two planes be shot down. The planes belonged to the Brothers to the Rescue nonprofit and carried out missions to help Cubans who were fleeing their homeland.

Brothers to the Rescue was operated by exiled Cuban-Americans out of Florida. The two planes were shot down as they left the U.S. in February 1996, killing the four Cubans who were aboard. At the time of the incident, Raúl Castro was the defense minister of Cuba, the Associated Press reported.

CNBC reported that the organization would search the Florida Straits for Cubans on rafts or makeshift boats trying to reach the U.S. At the time, Cuban officials said that the downing of the planes was justified because they had violated Cuban airspace.

Fidel Castro said the military had “standing orders” to shoot down planes entering Cuban airspace and that no specific order was given by his brother in relation to the incident.

The expected indictment comes as Cuba has faced increasing pressure from the U.S., particularly since the capture of Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3.

On January 29, Trump declared that Cuba was an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and created a tariff system to punish any country that “directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba.”

The tariff threat combined with the loss of oil from Venezuela has plunged Cuba into an energy crisis. Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy said last week Cuba had run out of fuel and oil, causing the electrical grid collapse and creating a 20-hour blackout, ABC News reported.

The island also is experiencing food shortages and an overall collapse of its economy as prices spike. Cuba imports 80 percent of its food.

“They (Cuban government) just don’t have the money to do it anymore,” William LeoGrande, a professor at American University, told the AP. “Things come in an ad hoc way.”