US indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro as it seeks to oust regime

Key points

• The United States issued a federal criminal indictment against Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, and five others on Wednesday in a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to oust the country’s si decades-old communist regime.
• The 94-year-old political figurehead was charged in Miami, Florida, with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft.
• Other defendants are a fighter pilot who was initially charged in connection with a 1996 incident in which four men were killed by the Cuban military when their aircraft were shot down during a humanitarian mission in the Florida Straits.
• Castro, Cuba’s defense minister at the time, is alleged to have given the order to open fire.
• The indictment, in US district court for the southern district of Florida, comes at a time of heightened tension between the US and Cuba.