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WASHINGTON/MIAMI: Former Cuban President Raul Castro has been indicted in the United States on murder charges, court records showed on Wednesday, in a major escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against the island’s communist government. Cuba’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Castro, 94, last appeared in public in Cuba earlier this month, and there is no evidence that he has since left the island or that the government would allow him to be extradited. The indictment against Raul Castro, filed in federal court in Miami, charges him with one count of conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft, court records show. Five other people are also named as defendants in the case. It comes as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a regime change in Cuba, where Castro’s communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959. A US Justice Department official told Reuters last week that the expected charges against Raul Castro were based on a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles. Trump in a statement earlier on Wednesday called Cuba a “rogue state harbouring hostile foreign military” and framed his administration’s actions regarding the Caribbean island as part of a broader effort to expand US influence in the Western Hemisphere. “From the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment,” Trump said at a Coast Guard Academy event in New London, Connecticut. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that the island does not represent a threat. The indictment marks a new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals. After taking power, Fidel Castro struck an alliance with the Soviet Union, then seized US-owned businesses and properties. The US has since maintained an economic embargo on the nation of about 10 million. The two sides have talked intermittently over the years. Diplomatic relations briefly improved during former Democratic President Barack Obama’s second term, but Trump, a Republican, has taken a harder line. Miami Ceremony The Miami US Attorney’s office was planning to host an event on Wednesday to honor victims of the 1996 incident. Members of Miami’s large Cuban American community gathered outside the city’s freedom tower ahead of the ceremony.
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