'We have Cuba on our minds': Donald Trump after DOJ unseals Raúl Castro indictment

President Donald Trump expressed his gratitude to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday for unsealing the indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro. Trump said that he had Cuba on his mind, calling it a "big day." The developments come at a time when Cuba is struggling with power issues due to a tight U.S. oil embargo and blockade.

Trump claimed that he had immense support from the Cuban communities in Miami and beyond, who were "decimated" when they came to the United States. "We have Cuba on our mind. Very important. It's been a lot of problems for a lot of years…this is a very big moment," he said. "Not only Cuban-American but people who came from Cuba that want to go back…people who want to see their families…I think this is a very big day."

The indictment against Castro stems from charges about a 1996 incident, in which two civilian aircraft were shot down. It killed four people, including three Americans. "Over three decades later, we are committed to holding those accountable for the murders of four brave Americans: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales," Blanche wrote in a post on X.

Questions have been raised about whether Castro would be brought to the U.S. to stand trial like Maduro. Speaking at a media interaction, Blanche said that he would be in the country by any means necessary. "We expect he will show up here by his will, or another way," he said. The Acting Attorney General also said that the indictment included an arrest warrant for the former Cuban President.

Interestingly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a message in Spanish for Cubans on Wednesday. "The reason you are forced to survive without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by America," he said as per The Guardian. "No electricity, fuel, or food is available because the people who control it have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people."

The Cuban leadership expressed dissatisfaction with the recent developments. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez claimed that the indictment revealed the "arrogance and frustration that the representatives of the empire feel toward the unyielding resolve of the Cuban Revolution" in a post on X. 

He also accused the U.S. of lying and distorting the facts, claiming that the shooting incident in 1996 was done in self-defence in sovereign Cuban territory against "notorious terrorists." Bermundez added that the American leadership of the time was repeatedly alerted about such airspace violations, which were ignored.

"The U.S. lies and distorts the events surrounding the downing of the planes belonging to the narco-terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996," he wrote. "It knows full well—given the abundance of documentary evidence—that no imprudent action was taken nor was international law violated, as U.S. military forces have indeed been doing."