Russia warned Tuesday that further escalation of tensions around Cuba could destabilize Latin America and the Caribbean as it condemned a Florida arrest warrant for former Cuban President Raúl Castro.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said the state arrest warrant for Castro over the 1996 shootdown carries one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the warrant Monday; a judge had signed it Friday and ordered Castro held without bond if arrested.
The complaint concerns two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft that Cuban fighter jets shot down on Feb. 24, 1996, killing four people, according to the state account. Uthmeier accuses Castro, Cuba’s Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces at the time, of ordering the attack. Florida’s complaint alleges that Cuban intelligence agents infiltrated the group and passed flight plans to Havana.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected the accusation as unfounded and characterized the warrant as retaliation by opponents of Cuba in Miami. The ministry also pointed to economic and energy pressure on the island. It warned that further escalation could lead to social unrest in Cuba and migration pressure on neighboring countries.
Cuba maintains that its military acted in response to what it says was an intrusion into its airspace. An International Civil Aviation Organization investigation, however, placed both downed aircraft about 10 nautical miles outside Cuban territorial airspace.
The Florida charge is separate from a federal indictment unsealed May 20. The U.S. Justice Department said the federal case names Castro and five others and includes conspiracy, aircraft destruction and murder charges. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in May that the federal indictment lacked a legal basis and accused Washington of using it to justify military aggression. FDLE says its state investigation remains open and further charges are possible.
