HAVANA — The United States indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro in federal court in 2026 over his alleged role in the 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft over Cuba. The unsealed indictment charges Castro and five others with involvement in the incident, which killed four people, three of whom were U.S. citizens.

The planes belonged to Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization that searched for Cuban migrants at sea and opposed the Cuban government. U.S. prosecutors allege Raúl Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time, helped authorize the shootdown after the civilian planes repeatedly entered Cuban airspace. The Cuban government shot down the two unarmed aircraft over international waters in 1996.

The 2026 indictment supersedes an earlier 2003 indictment that named some of the same defendants. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the indictment against Raúl Castro “isn’t a show indictment,” and that a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Castro was 94 years old at the time of the indictment. Christine Balling, a Cuba expert at the Institute of World Politics and former adviser to U.S. Special Operations Command South, stated, “At the very least, it means symbolically that he is now set up just as Nicolás Maduro was.” She added, “I don’t think that we are necessarily going to conduct the same operation. Raúl Castro is 94 years old. It might not be worth the trouble.”

The 1996 incident prompted strong condemnation from the U.S. government and led to the passage of the Helms-Burton Act, which tightened the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The act allows U.S. nationals to sue foreign companies that traffic in property confiscated by the Cuban government. U.S. officials have long maintained that the shootdown was an intentional act by Cuban military forces.