The White House is making it perfectly clear that America’s opponents are on notice – and Cuba is up next.

While President Trump is still holding out hope for some kind of deal in Iran (which is growing ever more unlikely), the administration is proving that it can deal with multiple issues at the same time. On Wednesday, the DOJ announced the indictment of the late Fidel’s brother Raul Castro in connection with the shooting down of United States civilian aircraft, which killed four people.

The U.S. Department of Justice today announced the unsealing of a superseding indictment charging Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, 94, of Holguin, Cuba; along with Lorenzo Alberto Perez‑Perez of Las Tunas, Cuba; Emilio José Palacio Blanco; José Fidel Gual Barzaga; Raul Simanca Cardenas; and Luis Raul Gonzalez‑Pardo Rodriguez, for their alleged roles in the Feb. 24, 1996 shoot‑down of two unarmed U.S. civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR), also known as Hermanos al Rescate, over international waters.

“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,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in the United States for alleged acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens. President Trump and this Justice Department are committed to restoring a simple principle: if you kill Americans, we will pursue you. No matter who you are. No matter what title you hold.”

The indictment was actually filed on April 23rd in the Southern District of Florida. For those who weren’t around 30 years ago, this was an unprovoked attack on a humanitarian group attempting to rescue Cubans at sea.

Brothers to the Rescue, an organization founded by Cuban-American dissident José Basulto, organized search-and-rescue flights looking for makeshift rafts between Florida and Cuba belonging to those attempting to escape the island, a daring endeavor that helped thousands make it to the US.

In February 1996, two of the group’s civilian aircraft were shot down by a Cuban fighter jet over international waters shortly after departing an airport near Miami, killing four members including three US citizens and a green card holder.

A third aircraft, piloted by Basulto, was able to escape the assault. He recalled in a recent interview that he saw smoke to his right after the Cuban fighter jets attacked.

At the time, the Cuban government claimed the strikes were in response to the planes violating its airspace, while attempting to carry out a sabotage operation.

However, the Organization of American States (OAS) — a diplomatic group representing most countries across the Americas — determined the planes were outside Cuba’s airspace and were shot down with no warning or justifiable purpose, according to CBS.

President Bill Clinton condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms.”

Fidel Castro himself claimed responsibility for the incident, telling CBS at the time he had issued “general orders” to keep unauthorized aircraft from encroaching on Cuban airspace.

The US convicted one person — accused of spying on the humanitarian group for the communist regime — of conspiracy to murder over the deaths. He was sentenced to life, but sent back to Cuba in 2014 as part of a prisoner swap.

Fidel is dead, but Raul Castro was head of Cuba’s military at the time. The other men charged were fighter pilots. Naturally, the current president of Cuba is plenty mad.

Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel slammed the indictment as “a political maneuver” and insisted “no imprudent action was taken nor was international law violated” in the 1996 shootdown.

“On February 24, 1996, Cuba acted in legitimate self-defense within its jurisdictional waters, following repeated and dangerous violations of our airspace by notorious terrorists—a fact of which the U.S. administration at the time was alerted on more than a dozen occasions, yet it ignored the warnings and allowed those violations to continue,” Díaz-Canel posted on X.

Obviously, the communist leaders of Cuba are thinking about Nicolas Maduro. And the White House fully intends for them to be thinking about Maduro.

Justice will be served. pic.twitter.com/jdnIiTtsd7

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 20, 2026

Earlier in the day, President Trump told reporters that Cuba was very much on the administration’s mind.

.@POTUS on the indictment of Raul Castro: "The Cuban population of Miami, and certainly beyond Miami… appreciate what the Attorney General just did today… We have Cuba on our mind—very important." pic.twitter.com/pJ74rkrL5a

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 20, 2026

And there was meaning behind announcing the indictment yesterday. May 20th is the internationally accepted date of Cuban independence – but the Castro regime actively worked to erase it.

May 20, 1902, is recognized as the official birth of the Republic of Cuba after centuries of Spanish rule (1511–1898) and a U.S. military occupation (1899–1902) that paved the way for its transition to a sovereign state.

That day, the Cuban flag flew on its own—without the U.S. flag alongside it—as had been the case up to that point after Spain’s withdrawal.

However, the close ties between Cuba and the U.S. government—and the agreements that allowed Washington to intervene in the country—led to the history of the date being censored starting in 1959, with Fidel Castro’s arrival.

The message from the newly formed communist government was that freedom had arrived with them on January 1 of that year, and that the previous period had been a form of colonization, similar to what Cuba had lived under Spanish rule.

So not only did the Trump administration indict Raul Castro on Cuba’s Independence Day, but both President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio made statements in support of the people of Cuba. President Trump warned the current regime to remember Maduro, and think on what may come next.

Following the Maduro raid, I have enacted powerful new sanctions on Cuba’s military and intelligence apparatus, and those who provide it with material and financial support, depriving the regime of resources and its elites from the opportunity to profit from the people’s suffering. My commitment is ironclad: America will not tolerate a rogue state harboring hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations just ninety miles from the American homeland, and we will not rest until the people of Cuba once again have the freedom their forefathers fought so valiantly to establish over 100 years ago.

On this Cuban Independence Day, our Republic stands in solidarity with the Cuban people and with the millions of Cuban-Americans who have so profoundly enriched the life of our Nation. Many of them came to these shores with nothing, built extraordinary lives, and embraced with their whole hearts the constitutional way of life that makes America the greatest country on earth. Today, we salute them and remember all those who have sacrificed for a free Cuba, and we look with confidence toward a new Golden Age for the island and its people.

Rubio went further, and delivered his message in Spanish to the Cuban people.

His message said, in part:

On a day like today, in 1902, the Cuban flag flew for the first time over an independent country. But I know that today, you, who call the island your home, are going through unimaginable hardships. Today I want to share with you the truth about the reason for your suffering. And I want to tell you what we, in the U.S., are offering to help you not only alleviate the current crisis, but also to build a better future.

The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil “blockade” by the U.S. As you know, better than anyone, you have been suffering from blackouts for years.

The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people.

Thirty years ago, Raúl Castro founded a company called GAESA. This company is owned and operated by the Armed Forces, and has revenues three times greater than your current government’s budget. Today, while you suffer, these businessmen have $18 billion dollars in assets and control 70% of Cuba’s economy. They profit from hotels, construction, banks, stores and even from the money your relatives send you from the U.S. everything, everything passes through their hands. From those remittances they retain a percentage, but from GAESA’s profits nothing reaches you.

But President Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba.

A new Cuba where you, the ordinary Cuban, and not just GAESA, can own a gas station or a clothing store, or a restaurant.

A new Cuba where you, and not just GAESA, can open a bank or have a construction company.

A new Cuba where you, and not just the Communist Party of Cuba, can own a television station or a newspaper.

A new Cuba where you can complain about a failing system, without fear of going to jail or being forced to leave your island.

And a new Cuba where you have a real opportunity to choose who governs your country and vote to replace them if they are not doing a good job.

This is not impossible. All of this exists in the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and even just 90 miles away, in Florida. If owning your own business and having the right to vote is possible around Cuba, why is it not possible for you in Cuba?

In the U.S. we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people and our countries.

And, currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.

The regime certainly hopes the Cuban people are not listening. But some of them are.

Many Cubans hope the US indictment against former president Raul Castro announced Wednesday will usher in the collapse of the entire Communist regime.

Dissidents on the island and exiles in the US welcomed the historic charges — for murder over the downing of two aid jets in 1996 — saying while most of the island starves under choking sanctions, the political elite and military continue to syphon aid and lead normal lives.

In Havana, Ranses Mones Quintero, 32, told The Post he welcomed the criminal charges, saying: “We are happy and hopeful. And if there has to be blood, if Cubans have to die to get rid of the government, then we’re prepared. People are just tired of waiting for change.”

However, presently he’s most worried about where he’s going to find medication to treat his pneumonia.

“There’s nothing here,” he said, explaining he survives on remittances his family sends from the US, from which the government takes a portion of that cash.

“There’s no medication, no work and we only have electricity for a couple of hours a day.”

Another non-Cuba born longtime resident of Havana characterized the indictment as “symbolic” but said it could shake up the government, removing the old elites from power and making way for a new cadre of leaders, not in thrall to the Castro family.

“Right now, everything is silent, and everyone says the government is at an impasse,” she said, referring to the ruling elite.

“This is what usually happens when things change in Cuba. There’s silence and then there’s the surprise.”

Despite what the communist fanboys who visit Cuba in order to cosplay as fellow revolutionaries (so long as the hotel has air conditioning), the Cuban people are not living in the “warmth of collectivism.” They are living under the thumb of despots. Will the Trump administration actually stage a Maduro-style raid to bring Raul Castro to the United States to face this indictment? Castro is 94 years old, and while age is no defense from prosecution, it makes an arrest raid much more difficult to accomplish safely for all involved. It’s unlikely, but not improbable – and the possibility has now been planted in the minds of Cuban regime leaders and people alike, which serves to put Cuba on notice.

Featured image via gabrielmbulla on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license