The Trump administration plans to put a Castro in an American courtroom, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Department of Justice and Florida officials unveiled an indictment against Raul Castro, the former first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, in connection with then 1996 deaths of four men after Cuban forces shot down two planes affiliated with a humanitarian aid group.
Blanche was asked if he really thought the 94-year-old power broker would ever see the inside of an American courtroom.
“We indict men outside of this country all the time. And there’s all kinds of different ways that we can get them here,” Blanche said in a video posted to X.
🚨 TODD BLANCHE just made CRYSTAL CLEAR to Raul Castro that he WILL be arrested, one way or another
“There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here by his own will, or by another way”
I think we ALLLL know what that other way is 👀 pic.twitter.com/raxySliq3f
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 20, 2026
“The reason we indict somebody is because we want them to face justice, in front of a jury of their peers,” Blanche said.
“How we go about doing that obviously depends on the circumstances in the case, and I’m not gonna go beyond that, but we expect, we didn’t indict, this isn’t a show indictment.”
“There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”
“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” Blanche said, according to the Associated Press. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”
Five Cuban military pilots were also charged.
“Today’s announcement that the dictator Raúl Castro has been indicted by the Department of Justice of the United States for the brutal murder of four American humanitarian workers is a significant and long-overdue step toward justice.
Thanks to @POTUS and his administration for… pic.twitter.com/TTJWqfThUJ
— Jenniffer González (@Jenniffer) May 20, 2026
One observer noted that an indictment preceded the U.S. raid on Venezuela to bring former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to the United States for trial.
“He’s going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, said of Castro. “They’re going to have no choice but to take this threat extremely seriously.”
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced the indictment as “a political action without any legal basis” that is an attempt to “bolster the case they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”
Raul Castro is accused of ordering Cuban air force pilots to shoot down two planes working with the aid group Brothers to the Rescue, according to USA Today. Three of those killed were U.S. citizens.
Sen. Ashley Moody on Castro indictment: “The last administration decided we were going to…coddle them into freedom. But not this administration. They took the bold step of actually bringing accountability, and understanding that accountability works.” pic.twitter.com/gWb1RwC3IH
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 20, 2026
At the time of the incident, Fidel Castro took responsibility for downing the jets, according to the Miami Herald.
However, in 2006, the newspaper El Nuevo Herald obtained audio of Raul Castro telling Cuban reporters that he was in charge of shooting the planes out of the sky.
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