Editorial note: This Party for Socialism and Liberation statement was originally published on Liberation News on May 20, 2026. We are reposting it to counter misinformation spread by mainstream media and to provide activists with the necessary information regarding threats of future U.S. imperialism.
The announced indictment of Raúl Castro Ruz, historic leader of the Cuban Revolution and former President of the Republic of Cuba, by the United States Department of Justice is a brazen act of injustice and a transparent pretext for escalating aggression against a sovereign nation. This indictment is not an act of justice; it is another provocation designed to manufacture consent for another war by the Trump administration.
The United States indictment of Raúl Castro has no legal basis and rests on a fundamental distortion: that Cuba possessed no right to defend its territorial integrity from U.S.-based terrorist groups like “Brothers to the Rescue”. This is false. Under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and consistent with international law, every sovereign state possesses the inherent right to defend its territory, including its national airspace, against unlawful incursions. The 1996 downing of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft occurred only after Cuba exhausted all diplomatic channels with the U.S. government, and only in response to repeated, deliberate, and documented violations of Cuban sovereignty.
Contrary to the narrative advanced by the Trump administration, Cuba did not act precipitously. Between 1994 and February 1996, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cuban civil aviation authorities recorded and documented more than 25 serious, deliberate, and systematic violations of Cuban airspace by aircraft associated with Brothers to the Rescue.
Each of these territorial violations was formally denounced in writing. Cuba officially notified the appropriate U.S. authorities, the U.S. State Department, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), all of whom possessed both the legal authority and the binding obligation under international law to halt these unlawful flights. They refused to do so.
The National Security Archive’s declassified records, published on May 19, 2026, reveal that high-level U.S. officials knew that Cuban airspace violations would lead to disaster. An FAA email from January 22, 1996, one month before the shootdown, explicitly warned of the “worst case scenario” that “one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes.” The same document acknowledges that State Department officials understood the overflights could “only be seen as further taunting of the Cuban Government.”
White House Cuba point man Richard Nuccio warned then National Security Advisor Sandy Berger on the night of February 23, 1996, that “tensions are sufficiently high within Cuba… that we fear this may finally tip the Cubans toward an attempt to shoot down or force down the plane.” The FAA refused Nuccio’s request to ground the flights. The United States had clear warning, clear authority to act, and clear legal obligation, and it chose inaction.
The timing of this indictment reveals its true purpose. It arrives as part of an escalating campaign by the Trump administration consisting of threats, ultimatums, and preparations for an unprovoked war against Cuba. The administration has already imposed drastic economic sanctions, blockaded oil shipments, designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, and threatened to deploy naval assets within 100 yards of Cuban shores.
Such a war must be opposed and stopped before it starts. People in the United States, international institutions, and all who respect international law must reject this indictment as the political instrument it is. Charging a 94-year-old former head of state for an act of territorial defense that occurred thirty years ago, after Cuba exhausted every diplomatic channel, is not justice.
Raúl Castro acted within his sovereign rights and in a manner consistent with Cuba’s obligations under international law. The U.S. government, not Cuba, bears responsibility for failing to stop flights that its own officials knew would lead to tragedy.
The people of this country do not want another war. Trump has already dragged the world into economic chaos, death and destruction with his unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, which the clear majority of people in the United States want to end immediately. It would be an outrage if he turned around and launched yet another unprovoked war, this time to Cuba. This indictment should be withdrawn, and the Trump administration’s war drive against Cuba must end immediately.
Featured image: An April 2021 speak-out against the blockade against Cuba organized by PSL Indianapolis, Indy10 Black Lives Matter, ANSWER Indiana, Cosecha Indiana, and YDSA of IUPUI. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center.