Key facts
- Raul Castro appeared on state television during an Interior Ministry celebration in Havana.
- This is his first public appearance since the Trump administration indicted him on murder charges.
- The US alleges Castro ordered the 1996 shootdown of planes operated by Cuban exiles.
- Castro was charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder.
- The indictment came amid rising tensions in the Caribbean.
Former Cuban leader Raúl Castro made his first public appearance Friday since the Trump administration charged him with murder over the 1996 shoot-down of planes operated by a Cuban exile group. Castro appeared on state television during an Interior Ministry celebration in Havana. The appearance came weeks after the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment accusing Castro of playing a role in the downing of two aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile organization Brothers to the Rescue nearly 30 years ago. Castro was charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder. Castro, who turned 95 on Wednesday, was last seen publicly during May Day celebrations in Havana, days before the indictment was unsealed. Prior to his May Day appearance, Castro had remained out of public view for months, appearing only at a public ceremony in Cuba's capital in January honoring 32 Cuban soldiers killed during the U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The indictment centers on a February 1996 incident in which Cuban military aircraft allegedly shot down two unarmed civilian planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, killing four men: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. Prosecutors allege the aircraft were flying outside Cuban territory when they were destroyed. The indictment came amid rising tensions in the Caribbean and a series of comments from Trump and his surrogates hinting at possible regime change in the island nation. President Donald Trump previously praised the indictment, saying Cuban Americans whose families suffered under the communist regime had waited decades for accountability. Trump also suggested tensions with Cuba would not escalate following the indictment. Christine Balling, a Cuba expert at the Institute of World Politics, noted that the indictment sent "a very straightforward message that we are 100% behind the fall of the Castro regime."