Raúl Castro makes first public appearance since Trump DOJ murder charges

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, according to Reuters.

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.

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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.

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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.

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“We have big news on Cuba, as you know, with the indictment of Castro,” Trump said. “A lot of people have suffered very big, very, very, at levels that few people would understand.”

Trump also suggested tensions with Cuba would not escalate following the indictment.

“There won’t be escalation,” he said. “We won’t have to.”

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Still, the decision to indict Castro fueled comparisons to the pressure campaign Trump previously used against Maduro.

“At the very least, it means symbolically that he is now set up just as Nicolás Maduro was,” Christine Balling, a Cuba expert at the Institute of World Politics and former advisor to U.S. Special Operations Command South, previously told Fox News Digital.

The U.S. indicted Maduro on narco-terrorism charges while tightening sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, backing opposition efforts to remove him from power and increasing military operations in the Caribbean.

“I don’t think that we are necessarily going to conduct the same operation,” Balling said. “Raúl Castro is 94 years old. It might not be worth the trouble.”

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Still, Balling argued that the indictment sent “a very straightforward message that we are 100% behind the fall of the Castro regime.”

Fox News Digital’s Robert McGreevy, Greg Wehner and Morgan Phillips, along with Fox News’ David Spunt, Bill Mears and Jake Gibson contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed to this report.