2026-05-20T12:52:00-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/raul-castro-indicted-us-cuba/
华盛顿——佛罗里达州联邦检察官周三公开了一项起诉书，指控古巴前领导人劳尔·卡斯特罗及另外五人与古巴军方30年前击落两架客机并造成人员死亡事件有关。多名官员在迈阿密的新闻发布会上公布了这项指控。
针对现年94岁的卡斯特罗的联邦刑事指控——他是已故菲德尔·卡斯特罗的弟弟，被广泛视为古巴最具权势的人物之一——标志着特朗普政府对古巴政府的施压升级。劳尔·卡斯特罗于2008年至2018年担任古巴总统，并于2011年至2021年担任古巴共产党最高领导人。
哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）新闻率先报道了美国准备起诉卡斯特罗的消息。
卡斯特罗于4月23日在迈阿密被起诉，罪名包括一项共谋杀害美国国民、四项谋杀罪以及两项破坏航空器罪。一名法官于周三批准了检察官的请求，公开了这份长达20页的起诉书。
指控围绕古巴空军1996年2月击落两架由佛罗里达州流亡组织“拯救古巴兄弟会”运营的民用客机展开，此次事件造成四人死亡。起诉书称，客机被击落时处于古巴领空之外。
另外五名被告均为古巴战斗机飞行员，其中一人早在20多年前就因此次击落事件被起诉。
“近30年来，四名遇害美国人的家属一直在等待正义，”代理司法部长托德·布兰奇在新闻发布会上表示。“我今天的讯息很明确：美国和特朗普总统不会、也永远不会忘记本国公民。”
起诉劳尔·卡斯特罗
目前尚不清楚卡斯特罗是否会受审，因为古巴不会向美国引渡人员。委内瑞拉前领导人尼古拉斯·马杜罗于2020年因毒品指控被起诉。今年早些时候，他被美国军方抓获并押往纽约受审，此次大胆行动促成了一名临时领导人的就职，该领导人目前与美国密切合作。
当被记者问及如何将卡斯特罗押往美国受审时，布兰奇未提供任何细节，但表示“这不是一场作秀式起诉”，司法部 intends to try the case. 他表示，“有各种不同的方式”可以将身处其他国家的被告引渡归案。
起诉书指控，时任古巴武装部队领导人的卡斯特罗“在1996年1月与军方领导人会面并授权他们采取果断致命行动”打击“拯救古巴兄弟会”的客机，此前该组织曾多次飞行散发传单。
“古巴军方下达的所有杀戮命令都通过[武装部队]的指挥链传递，劳尔·卡斯特罗和菲德尔·卡斯特罗是最终决策者，”检察官表示。
起诉书还指控古巴情报机构在佛罗里达部署了间谍网络，负责监视“拯救古巴兄弟会”。该间谍网络的多名成员在20多年前就被起诉，其中一人因与1996年击落事件相关的谋杀共谋罪被定罪。
起诉书对古巴政权进行了全面抨击。
“卡斯特罗政权通过消除异见、维护自身权力、领土和声誉，并通过没收和国有化私营企业为这些目标提供资金，建立并维持了对古巴及其人民的控制，”起诉书中写道。
“拯救古巴兄弟会”客机被击落事件
1996年的事件中，古巴一架米格-29战斗机击落了两架由“拯救古巴兄弟会”运营的塞斯纳飞机，该组织负责搜寻乘坐筏艇逃离古巴的民众。机上三名美国公民和一名绿卡持有者遇难。
联合国国际民用航空组织认定，客机被击落时正处于古巴领空之外，古巴对此予以否认。该组织还表示，古巴当局未尝试通过其他方式处理这两架飞机，包括通过无线电联系或引导它们离开该区域。
此次击落事件引发了公愤。美洲国家组织指控古巴违反国际法，时任总统比尔·克林顿“以最强烈的措辞”对此予以谴责。美国国会随后收紧了对古巴的制裁。
古巴政府否认存在不当行为，坚称客机曾进入古巴领空。古巴指责“拯救古巴兄弟会”成员多次侵犯古巴领空散发传单，并声称该组织曾计划破坏古巴基础设施。
周二晚间，古巴最高外交官利亚尼斯·托雷斯·里维拉在社交媒体上发布了1996年美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）解密记录的链接，其中美国官员曾预见到“最坏情况：总有一天古巴会击落其中一架飞机，FAA最好做好万全准备”。
击落事件发生时，劳尔·卡斯特罗担任古巴国防部长，起诉书指控他授权对“拯救古巴兄弟会”的飞机使用武力。在1996年接受哥伦比亚广播公司《晚间新闻》主播丹·拉瑟采访时，时任古巴总统菲德尔·卡斯特罗承认，他下达了“全面命令”以阻止飞机侵犯该国领空。
除卡斯特罗外，起诉书还指控涉嫌击落两架飞机的战斗机飞行员洛伦佐·阿尔贝托·佩雷斯-佩雷斯犯有共谋罪、谋杀罪和破坏航空器罪。佩雷斯-佩雷斯曾于2003年与他所在米格-29机组的另一名飞行员以及已故的古巴前空军司令一同因此次事件被起诉，但该案从未进入审判程序。
在新起诉书中，另有四名战斗机飞行员被指控犯有共谋罪。他们被指控在“拯救古巴兄弟会”事件发生前，“使用古巴军用飞机开展训练任务，以在古巴海岸外搜寻、追踪、追击和拦截小型民用飞机”。
起诉书还详细描述了古巴政府渗透“拯救古巴兄弟会”并收集该组织飞行信息的广泛行动，部署了一个名为“黄蜂网络”的间谍网络。
这一被称为“蝎子行动”的间谍活动 allegedly involved an accused Cuban double agent named Juan Pablo Roque, who defected to the U.S. in the early 1990s but returned to Cuba one day before the flights were shot down. 起诉书指控罗克“ falsely informed the FBI that [Brothers to the Rescue] would not be flying during the weekend of February 24, 1996.” 报告还称，古巴情报官员告知罗克和另一名人员不要在击落事件发生的周末搭乘“拯救古巴兄弟会”的飞机。
已于去年去世的罗克否认曾为古巴间谍。
该间谍网络的多名成员在十多年前的联邦法院审判中被定罪，包括据称的头目赫拉尔多·埃尔南德斯，他因与击落事件相关的谋杀共谋罪被判处终身监禁。埃尔南德斯于2014年通过囚犯交换返回古巴。
美古关系下一步走向
如今，随着对劳尔·卡斯特罗的起诉，检察官将矛头指向了自其兄菲德尔1959年推翻美国支持的古巴领导人以来一直在古巴担任高级职务的人物。劳尔于2011年接替其兄担任古巴共产党最高领导人，并于十年后卸任该职务，但仍保持影响力，他的孙子——常被称为“小罗尔”——是与美国官员接触的关键联系人。
此次起诉出台前，美古双方已经过数月紧张关系。特朗普政府威胁对任何向古巴运送石油的国家征收高额关税，导致古巴境内出现大范围能源短缺和电网瘫痪。
与此同时，迈阿密的美国检察官今年早些时候发起了一项举措，调查起诉古巴领导人的相关案件，包括经济、毒品、移民和暴力犯罪等罪名。
美国国务卿马可·卢比奥辩称，古巴需要进行全面的经济和政治改革，并暗示现有的古巴政权——他称其由“无能、年老昏聩的男性”领导——必须更迭。在马杜罗被抓获数小时后，卢比奥指出古巴对委内瑞拉的依赖，并对记者表示：“如果我住在哈瓦那且在政府任职，我至少会有点担心。”
在周三上午发布的一段在线视频信息中，卢比奥敦促古巴人民选择“一条新道路”。与此同时，古巴副外长卡洛斯·F·德科西奥周三早些时候在社交媒体上发文称，卢比奥对古巴“撒谎”，因为他“完全清楚，这种残忍无情的侵略行径没有任何借口”。
特朗普总统并未排除军事行动的可能性，他多次表示，他对古巴“友好接管”持开放态度，古巴可能会成为美国继对伊朗战争之后的“下一个目标”。特朗普还暗示他愿意进行谈判。
“古巴正在寻求帮助，我们将进行谈判！”他上周在Truth Social的一篇帖子中写道。
尽管局势紧张，美国官员今年至少两次访问哈瓦那进行会谈，中央情报局局长约翰·拉特克利夫上周与劳尔·卡斯特罗的孙子会面。美国政府还单独向古巴提供了1亿美元的人道主义援助。
一名中央情报局官员表示，拉特克利夫告诉古巴领导人，特朗普政府提供了“真正的合作机会”，以及稳定古巴 struggling economy的契机。但该官员补充称，拉特克利夫警告称，这一机会不会无限期保留，必要时政府将强制执行“红线”。
U.S. indicts Cuba’s Raúl Castro on murder and conspiracy charges for downing of planes in 1996
2026-05-20T12:52:00-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/raul-castro-indicted-us-cuba/
Washington— Federal prosecutors in Florida on Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging former Cuban leader Raúl Castro and five others in connection with the Cuban military’s fatal downing of two planes 30 years ago, with officials unveiling the charges at a press conference in Miami.
The federal criminal charges against the 94-year-old Castro — brother of the late Fidel Castro and widely seen as one of Cuba’s most powerful figures — mark an escalation in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the Cuban government. Castro served as president of Cuba from 2008 to 2018 and as the top official of the country’s Communist Party from 2011 to 2021.
CBS News was first to report that the U.S. was preparing to indict Castro.
Castro was indicted in Miami on April 23 on one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft. A judge granted prosecutors’ request to unseal the 20-page indictment on Wednesday.
The charges focus on the Cuban air force’s decision to shoot down two civilian planes flown by Florida-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue in February 1996, killing four people. The indictment says the planes were outside of Cuban airspace at the time of the shootdown.
The other five named defendants are identified as Cuban fighter pilots, including one who was initially charged in connection with the shootdown more than two decades ago.
“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the news conference. “My message today is clear: The United States and President Trump does not and will not forget its citizens.”
Indictment of Raúl Castro
It’s not clear whether Castro will ever stand trial, since Cuba does not extradite people to the United States. Former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was indicted on drug charges in 2020. Earlier this year, he was captured by U.S. forces and flown to New York for trial, a daring operation that led to the installation of an interim leader who is now working closely with the U.S.
Asked by reporters how Castro might be brought to the U.S. to face trial, Blanche did not offer any details, but said “this isn’t a show indictment” and that the Justice Department intends to try the case. He said “there’s all kinds of different ways” to bring in defendants who are located in other countries.
The indictment alleges that Castro — who led Cuba’s armed forces at the time — “met with military leaders and authorized them to use decisive and deadly action” against Brothers to the Rescue planes in January 1996, following several earlier rounds of flights by the group to drop leaflets.
“All orders to kill by the Cuban military traveled through [the armed forces’] chain of command with [Raúl Castro] and Fidel Castro as the final decision makers,” prosecutors said.
The indictment also alleges that Cuba’s intelligence agency tasked a network of spies in Florida with informing on Brothers to the Rescue. Several members of that spy ring were charged more than two decades ago, including one man who was convicted of murder conspiracy in connection with the 1996 shootdown.
The indictment offers sweeping criticism of the Cuban regime.
“The Castro Regime established and maintained control over Cuba and her people through a reign that eliminated dissent, preserved their power, territory, and reputations, and, through expropriation and nationalization of private business, funded those objectives,” the indictment reads.
Brothers to the Rescue planes shot down
The 1996 incident involved a Cuban MiG-29 fighter jet that shot down two Cessnas operated by Brothers to the Rescue, which searched for Cubans seeking to flee the island nation in rafts. Three U.S. citizens and one green-card holder aboard the planes were killed.
The United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization found that the planes were flying outside Cuban airspace when they were shot down, which Cuba denies. The organization also said Cuban authorities did not make any attempt to deal with the planes through some other means, including contacting them over the radio or guiding them out of the area.
The shootdown was met with outrage. The Organization of American States alleged Cuba violated international law, and then-President Bill Clinton condemned it “in the strongest possible terms.” Congress reacted by tightening U.S. sanctions on Cuba.
The Cuban government denied wrongdoing, insisting the planes had entered Cuban airspace. Cuba accused Brothers to the Rescue members of repeatedly violating Cuban airspace to drop leaflets, and claimed the group had planned to sabotage Cuban infrastructure.
On Tuesday night, Cuba’s top diplomat Lianys Torres Rivera posted on social media a link to the declassified FAA records from 1996 in which U.S. officials foresaw a “worst case scenario that one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes and the FAA better have all its ducks in a row.”
At the time of the shootdown, Raúl Castro was the country’s defense minister, and the indictment alleges he authorized force against Brothers to the Rescue. In a 1996 interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather, then-Cuban President Fidel Castro acknowledged that he issued “general orders” to stop planes from encroaching on the country.
In addition to Castro, the indictment charges one of the fighter pilots who allegedly shot down the two planes, Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez, with conspiracy, murder and destruction of aircraft. Perez-Perez was previously indicted for the incident in 2003, along with the other pilot on his MiG-29 and the now-deceased former head of Cuba’s air force. The case was never tried.
Four other fighter pilots were charged with conspiracy in the new indictment. They were accused of engaging in “training missions using Cuban military aircraft to find, track, pursue, and intercept small, civilian aircraft off the coast of Cuba” in the lead-up to the Brothers to the Rescue incident.
The indictment also describes an extensive effort by the Cuban government to infiltrate Brothers to the Rescue and gather information on the group’s flights, deploying a web of spies known as the Wasp Network.
That spying effort — known as Operation Scorpion — allegedly involved an accused Cuban double agent named Juan Pablo Roque, who defected to the U.S. in the early 1990s but returned to Cuba one day before the flights were shot down. The indictment alleges that Roque “falsely informed the FBI that [Brothers to the Rescue] would not be flying during the weekend of February 24, 1996.” It also says Cuban intelligence officials told Roque and one other person not to fly with Brothers to the Rescue on the weekend of the shootdown.
Roque, who died last year, denied serving as a Cuban spy.
Several members of the spy ring were convicted in federal court more than a decade ago, including alleged leader Gerardo Hernandez, who was sentenced to life in prison for murder conspiracy in connection with the shootdown. Hernandez returned to Cuba in a 2014 prisoner swap.
What’s next for Cuba-U.S. relations?
Now, with the indictment of Raúl Castro, prosecutors are charging a figure who has held senior roles in Cuba since his brother Fidel overthrew the country’s U.S.-backed leader in 1959. Raúl succeeded his brother as head of Cuba’s Communist Party in 2011. He stepped down as party leader a decade later, but he has remained influential, and his grandson — often known as “Raulito” — is a key point of contact with U.S. officials.
The indictment comes after months of tensions between the U.S. and Cuba. The Trump administration has threatened steep tariffs against any country that ships oil to Cuba, leading to widespread energy shortages and electrical grid failures on the island.
Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney in Miami launched an initiative earlier this year to look into prosecuting Cuban leaders, including for economic, drug, immigration and violent crimes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that Cuba needs to make sweeping economic and political reforms, and suggested the existing Cuban regime — which he says is led by “incompetent, senile men” — needs to change. Hours after Maduro’s capture, Rubio pointed to Cuba’s reliance on Venezuela and told reporters: “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I would be concerned, at least a little bit.”
In a video message posted online Wednesday morning, Rubio urged the people of Cuba to choose “a new path.” Meanwhile, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister Carlos F. de Cossio posted on social media early Wednesday that Rubio “lies” about Cuba because he “knows full well that there is no excuse for such a cruel and ruthless aggression.”
President Trump has not ruled out military action, saying at various points that he is interested in a “friendly takeover” of Cuba and that the country could be “next” after the U.S.’ war with Iran. Mr. Trump has also suggested he’s open to negotiation.
“Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!!” he wrote in a Truth Social post last week.
Despite the tensions, American officials have visited Havana for talks at least twice this year, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe meeting with Raúl Castro’s grandson last week. The administration also separately offered Cuba $100 million in humanitarian aid.
A CIA official said Ratcliffe told Cuban leaders the Trump administration was offering “a genuine opportunity for collaboration” and a chance to stabilize Cuba’s struggling economy. But Ratcliffe warned, the official added, that the opportunity would not remain open indefinitely and the administration would enforce “red lines” if necessary.