The U.S. justice department is reportedly preparing to indict aging Cuban leader Raúl Castro in the coming days over the shooting down of two aircraft three decades ago.
The reported charges, which would need to be approved by a U.S. grand jury, emerged as the director of the CIA travelled to Cuba to meet officials in Havana.
Castro, 94, stepped down as Cuban Communist Party leader in 2021, ending his family's more than half a century in power. He led the country for 15 years, stepping in after his brother, Fidel, resigned.
The potential indictment is the latest move in a U.S. pressure campaign that has included an oil blockade and widespread sanctions.
The charges are said to centre on the 1996 downing of two planes operated by the U.S. activist-humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue.
Unnamed U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) officials told U.S. media the indictment could come as soon as next Wednesday.
Asked on Friday about the reported indictment plan, President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One: I'll let DoJ comment on it. He added: But [Cubans] need help, as you know. And you talk about a declining country. They are really a nation, a country in decline.
Trump has issued an oil blockade against Cuba, which has exacerbated fuel shortages. This week the island's energy minister acknowledged that Cuba has, in essence, run out of fuel oil.
Potential charges against Raúl Castro were unclear, but officials said the investigation centred on an attack on two small planes, which happened on 24 February 1996 while Fidel was president and Raúl was armed forces minister. Four people aboard were killed in the incident.
Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group that searched for rafts carrying migrants from Cuba to the U.S., had previously dropped anti-Castro leaflets near the Cuban coast.
The Cuban government - including Fidel Castro, who died in 2016 - said Brothers to the Rescue had repeatedly violated Cuban airspace, although the International Civil Aviation Organization found the attack took place over international waters.
In March, the attorney general in Florida announced in a news conference that the state was reopening an investigation into Raúl Castro's alleged role in the incident. Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis praised the possible criminal charges on Friday, calling them long overdue.
Cuba has not officially commented on the reports of an indictment, but Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez struck a defiant tone on Friday, stating: Despite the [U.S.] embargo, sanctions and threats of the use of force, Cuba continues on a path of sovereignty towards its socialist development.
Washington has focused more on Cuba in recent months above previous priorities, likely catalyzing more discussions about regime change in the Caribbean nation that lies only 90 miles from Florida.
