Raúl Castro’s indictment revives questions about Brothers to the Rescue, U.S.–Cuba tensions and Washington’s double standards.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47635535

[weekly newsletter about Cuba (with YouTube video links) from the Belly Of The Beast news collective. Their videos can also be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

May 20, 2026

The Justice Department is set to indict former Cuban President Raúl Castro today over the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes — a case that has been a politically charged flashpoint in U.S.-Cuba relations for nearly three decades.

So far, the coverage by corporate media outlets has left out critical context: repeated provocations and incursions, numerous warnings by Cuban authorities, years of violent attacks against Cuba originating from South Florida and the U.S. government’s refusal to restrain an extremist group openly seeking confrontation.

The article below, written by Nicholas Greven, examines the history behind the case, Washington’s double standard on terrorism and why this indictment is about far more than settling a decades-old score.