Cubans reject outside intervention after US indicts Raúl Castro

From the streets of the Cuban capital, a defiant message has emerged after US federal prosecutors indicted former president Raúl Castro for the 1996 downing of two civilian planes — with residents rejecting the charges as hypocritical, dismissing the need for outside intervention, and warning that Washington’s real aim may be to justify military aggression.

The indictment, unsealed on Wednesday, accuses Raúl Castro — Cuba’s defense minister at the time — of murder and destruction of aircraft over the 24 February 1996 shootdown of two small planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Four men aboard were killed.

But in Havana, 61-year-old state worker Rolando Mesa was unimpressed: “Ah, but nobody prosecutes US President Donald Trump. And besides, take the shooting down of those planes, for example. If it had been the other way around, if Cuba had sent those planes into the United States and we flew into Miami, what would happen? They’d shoot us down like clay pigeons with the Patriots. So, what are we talking about?”

‘I don’t think it’s necessary to prosecute a single individual for Cuba to change’

Homemaker Debrezei Barreras, 43, questioned whether targeting one man would yield any political shift:

“There’s a different president in power today in Cuba, and I don’t think it’s necessary for anyone to go after a single individual and prosecute them for Cuba to change.”

She also voiced deep unease over any potential military action: “I wouldn’t want a military intervention in Cuba, because my daughter is out in the streets, I’m out in the streets too, and I honestly don’t think a military intervention would be a good idea.”

‘No need for anyone from the outside to come in’

Rodny Amaguer, a 38-year-old architect, rejected foreign involvement outright: “I don’t think there’s any need for anyone from the outside to come in and solve problems that Cubans themselves, together with their government, should be capable of resolving. It’s as simple as that.”

Trump administration’s major escalation

The charges — returned by a federal grand jury in Miami in April and announced Wednesday — mark a sharp escalation in pressure from the Trump administration against Cuba’s socialist government.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said authorities expected Castro to face justice “by his own will or by another way.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as politically motivated and accused Washington of attempting to justify possible military aggression against the island.

1996 incident that hardened US policy

The 1996 shootdown, which occurred north of Havana after repeated airspace violations by Brothers to the Rescue, hardened US policy toward Cuba for decades.

The group, founded by Cuban exiles, had flown numerous missions near the island.

The indictments now revive one of the most contentious chapters in US-Cuba relations — but on the streets of Havana, the reaction is clear: Cubans say they will handle their own affairs, without outside prosecutors, and without foreign intervention.