The United States’ move to indict former Cuban President Raul Castro could be a prelude to an invasion of Cuba or another pressure tactic.
US to indict former Cuban president Raul Castro
The United States is considering indicting former Cuban President Raul Castro on charges related to an incident 30 years ago.
The federal government’s move to indict former Cuban President Raul Castro would increase pressure for regime change in Cuba and could be a prelude to a U.S. military operation similar to the Trump administration’s sending troops to Venezuela in January to detain indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
But some legal experts say that while the indictment could suggest a plan by the Trump administration to overthrow Castro by force, it is legally questionable, similar to the Venezuela operation. And by divulging efforts to seek charges against Mr. Castro, who is accused of ordering the downing of a humanitarian aid plane in international airspace in 1996, U.S. officials have not helped ensure that any potential military operation remains unexpected and clandestine.
“If I were the Cuban government, given everything President Trump has said, I would be very concerned that this is a fig leaf to cover up a future invasion,” former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told USA TODAY.
“I think they’re going to indict Raul Castro and then either kidnap him or use that as a means to force regime change,” said Dave Aronberg, a former state’s attorney in Palm Beach County, Florida.
President Donald Trump has been talking for months about a “takeover” of the longtime communist country. The Trump administration’s recent military attacks on Venezuela and Iran have increased speculation that the president may actually use force against the Caribbean island nation.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, an ally of President Trump, said in public on May 15 that he hoped the U.S. would help bring about regime change, at about the same time he praised the possibility of indictments.
“He should be prosecuted and he should be held accountable. The Cuban regime is also outdated,” DeSantis said.
The White House referred USA TODAY to the Department of Justice for questions about potential charges and future developments. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment. The Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., also did not respond to a request for comment.
What are the fees?
According to reports, the charges sought date back to an incident in 1996. In the incident, Castro allegedly ordered Cuban fighter pilots to shoot down two civilian planes operating under the humanitarian aid group Brothers to the Rescue. Four members of the group were killed, including three Americans and a Cuban man living in the United States.
In 1996, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that two planes that took off from Florida violated Cuban territorial airspace. However, the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization ruled that the plane was in international airspace and the attack was illegal.
Ten years later, El Nuevo Herald, a Spanish-language newspaper in Florida, obtained audio of Raúl Castro allegedly explaining to a Cuban reporter how he and military officers planned to shoot down the plane, according to the Miami Herald, owned by El Nuevo Herald’s publisher.
Castro was leading the Cuban military at the time of the attack.
Why Maduro’s arrest is causing anxiety
Maduro’s detention in January has heightened suspicions that the Trump administration is planning a similar operation in Cuba. Because it provided a potential blueprint, and as such may have been intended to undermine the Cuban regime.
Socialist dictator Maduro was a close ally of the Cuban government. After his arrest, Venezuela stopped sending oil to Cuba. According to widespread reports, Cuba’s Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levi told state media on May 13 that the country’s fuel oil supplies had been exhausted.
“With Maduro gone, it was only a matter of time before their energy supply ran dry,” Aronberg said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly persuaded President Trump to abandon efforts to negotiate with President Maduro and has been pushing for regime change in Cuba for decades.
The charges against Castro are seen by some as a potential front for the United States to try to seize control of him.
When President Trump announced Maduro’s arrest in January, he detailed long-standing U.S. criminal charges against him for conspiring to transport thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States.
After Maduro’s arrest, four Republican senators praised Trump for his arrest in a letter and urged him to “consider indicting” Raul Castro for his 1996 murder.
“The Maduro model looms large here,” Dave Aronberg said.
Maduro’s detention is not the first time the US government has cited criminal charges as part of its rationale for entering the country and detaining a leader. In 1990, the U.S. government arrested Panama’s former ruler Manuel Noriega on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.
Epner said it’s anyone’s guess whether these models provide clues as to what the Trump administration will actually do or whether they’re just leverage in ongoing negotiations to change policy in Cuba.
“Trying to speculate about Donald Trump’s actual motives…is a fool’s errand,” he said.
Legal issues surrounding Castro’s arrest
Some legal advocates would object to such military action in Cuba on the basis of both international law and the U.S. Constitution.
(The United Nations Charter, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1945 by a vote of 89-2, authorizes the use of military force without authorization from the United Nations Security Council in cases of self-defense and only “in the event of an armed attack.”
Additionally, the U.S. Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress, not the president, and some legal experts would argue that military action in Cuba is an act of war, especially if it is part of regime change.
But it is unclear whether these objections will prevent the case against Mr. Castro from proceeding in court.
“There’s always been a tension in U.S. law as to whether if the United States captures someone illegally, does the court basically have the power to throw them back into the sea like a fish, or is that something beyond the court’s authority,” Epner said.
Maduro has argued in court that the way he was detained was illegal and that the U.S. government should be prevented from prosecuting him.
Mr. Epner said Mr. Castro could argue that any charges should be dropped because the U.S. government detained him under false pretenses, ostensibly for a 1996 plane crash, but engaged in unconstitutional “outrageous acts” in promoting regime change in Cuba.
But Mr. Aronberg said Mr. Castro’s potential legal defenses would be weaker than Mr. Maduro’s, at least in some respects. Maduro can argue that he will not be prosecuted because he was Venezuela’s head of state. (Prosecutors may contest this, arguing that he was not a legitimate leader because he stole his job after losing Venezuela’s elections.)
Mr. Castro, by contrast, has been out of public office in Cuba for several years, even though he remains the patriarch of a politically powerful family.
“His defense attorneys will have a hard time getting him released because he has few legal immunity claims,” Aaronberg said. “So he’s in a more precarious position than Maduro.”
