The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, described the accusation against Raúl Castro this Wednesday in a United States court as an action “without legal basis.”

The Cuban leader, who inherited power from Castro in 2018, accused Donald Trump's administration of trying to justify a military attack on the island.

Raúl Castro, 94, is accused of shooting down two small planes belonging to Cuban exiles in 1996, an episode that left four dead and opened one of the biggest crises in relations between Cuba and the United States.

Castro faces 4 charges of murder, as well as conspiracy to kill US citizens and destruction of aircraft, acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche announced this Wednesday from Miami.

The US “lies and manipulates”, according to Díaz-Canel

“The alleged accusation against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, which the US Government has just communicated, only demonstrates the arrogance and frustration that it provokes in the representatives of the empire, the unbreakable firmness of the Cuban Revolution and the unity and moral strength of its leadership,” Díaz-Canel wrote on the social network X.

He added that “this is a political action, without any legal basis, that only seeks to add to the file they fabricate to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”

He also assured that the US "lies and manipulates the events surrounding the downing of the small planes of the narco-terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue" and alleges that "it did not act recklessly nor did it violate international law."

The organization Brothers to the Rescue was dedicated at that time to assisting Cubans with their small planes who were trying to reach the United States on rafts in the Strait of Florida, although sometimes they also flew over Havana to drop leaflets, which infuriated Fidel Castro's regime.

Raúl Castro was then Minister of the Armed Forces.

On February 24, 1996, three Cessna C-337 planes from Hermanos al Rescate were carrying out a routine mission over the strait, two of which were shot down by Cuban MiG-29 fighters, causing the death of their four occupants.

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) concluded that the attack occurred in international waters and accused Cuba of violating international law.

The Cuban government has always maintained that it shot down the aircraft within its airspace.

“Legitimate defense”

Díaz-Canel stated in his publication that "Cuba acted in legitimate defense, within its jurisdictional waters, after successive and dangerous violations of our airspace by notorious terrorists, of which the US administration on duty was alerted on more than a dozen occasions, but ignored the warnings and allowed the violations."

Regarding this, it should be said that the Civil Aviation Federation (FAA) and other US authorities had been alerted of possible reprisals by the Cuban regime and were studying measures to prevent Hermanos to the rescue flights, according to documents from the time.

Díaz-Canel concluded with generous praise for the nonagenarian leader who gave him the presidency in 2018 and three years later the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC, the only legal one).

"The ethical height and humanistic sense of his work demolish any infamy that is intended to be raised against Army General Raúl Castro. As a guerrilla leader and as a statesman, he won the love of his people, to which is added the respect and admiration of other leaders in the region and the world. These values ​​are his best defense and a moral shield, against the ridiculous attempt to undermine his stature as a hero," he stated.