Cuba condemns US arrest warrant against Raul Castro

Havana (ANTARA) – The Cuban government on Monday (19 October) condemned an arrest warrant issued by the US state of Florida against former Cuban president Raul Castro.

The government described it as an absurd legal manoeuvre connected to Washington’s blockade of the island.

“Today’s despicable action against the Army General, in a pathetic circus in Miami against the backdrop of the election, has no and will never have the slightest legal significance, let alone any practical significance,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a post on social media platform X.

Diaz-Canel said the arrest warrant was a political manoeuvre disguised as a legal measure, orchestrated by anti-Cuba politicians against Raul Castro and Cuba.

He added that the move “reflects the difficulties they [the US] face in trying to justify the blockade and collective punishment of our people”.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also condemned the move in a post on X, calling it “another fruitless manoeuvre by anti-Cuba politicians in South Florida against Army General Raul Castro Ruz, which they have combined with other hackneyed and baseless accusations against Cuba”.

Rodriguez said the move reflected only “the political depravity and moral collapse of a group of parasites who deceive and mislead their followers, making them continue to contribute through fundraising and financial support”.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Monday that state authorities had obtained an arrest warrant for Cuban Revolution leader Raul Castro on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, in connection with the shooting down of two civilian aircraft in 1996.

Castro, 95, was Cuba’s Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces at the time. Havana says the aircraft were shot down in Cuban airspace and that the action was an act of self-defence.