Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Former Cuban President Raul Castro was indicted in the U.S.
- The indictment is part of President Donald Trump's push for a regime change in Cuba.
- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed defiance against U.S. threats and sanctions.
WASHINGTON — Former Cuban President Raul Castro has been indicted in the United States, a senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday, in a move that marks an escalation in Washington's pressure campaign against the Caribbean island's communist government.
The indictment comes as President Donald Trump has pushed for a regime change in Cuba, where Castro's communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
It represents the latest instance of Trump's Justice Department using criminal prosecution to target his political adversaries at home and abroad. Historically, U.S. indictments of foreign leaders are rare.
The U.S. has effectively imposed a blockade on Cuba by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and exacerbating its worst crisis in decades.
Castro, 94, served as Cuba's defense minister before assuming the presidency in 2008 after his brother fell ill. Fidel died in 2016.
Raul Castro stepped down from the presidency in 2018 but remains a powerful figure in Cuban politics.
Havana has not commented directly on the threat of an indictment, though Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed defiance in public comments on May 15.
"Despite the (U.S.) embargo, sanctions and threats of the use of force, Cuba continues on a path of sovereignty towards its socialist development," Rodriguez said.
Trump says Cuba is 'next'
Born in 1931, Raul Castro was a key figure alongside his older brother in the guerrilla war that toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. He helped defeat the U.S.-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
The filing of the criminal case against a U.S. adversary like Castro recalls the earlier drug-trafficking indictment of imprisoned former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Havana's.
The Trump administration cited that indictment as a justification for the Jan. 3 raid on Caracas by the U.S. military in which Maduro was captured and brought to New York to face the charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Trump says Cuba's communist government is corrupt, and in March threatened that Cuba "is next" after Venezuela.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that any U.S. military action against Cuba would lead to a "bloodbath" and that the island does not represent a threat.
Contributing: Andrew Goudsward and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Brendan O'Boyle and Michelle Nichols
