Florida brings more charges against former Cuba President Raul Castro

MIAMI (AP) — Former Cuban President Raúl Castro is facing more charges in Florida related to the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles after the U.S. government indicted the former leader earlier this year.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday accused Castro, 95, of directing spies to infiltrate the exile group Brothers to the Rescue and ordering the attack on their planes. The state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder is based largely on a federal indictment announced in May that included charges of murder and destruction of an airplane.

It remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom. Uthmeier said the arrest warrant will restrict Castro’s ability to leave the island nation and prevent him from traveling to any place with an extradition agreement with the U.S.

“I’m not ignorant of the fact that Raúl Castro is an older man who’s probably not looking to march himself into Miami,” Uthmeier said. “I think others would get him before the court of law would, but at the end of the day, we stand ready to prosecute the case.”

According to the state complaint, Castro was the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and First Vice President of Cuba when he gave the final authorization to shoot down the planes. Cuban Directorate of Intelligence agents operating as part of the Wasp Network in the Miami area and the Florida Keys infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and reported flight plans, investigators said.

On Feb. 24, 1996, three unarmed Cessna aircraft departed Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade County. Well outside Cuba’s territorial waters, Cuban MiGs destroyed two of the civilian planes with air-to-air missiles, killing the four occupants, the complaint said. Both aircraft were traveling away from Cuba and received no warning despite contact with Havana air traffic control, U.S. officials said.

“Our historic federal indictment laid the groundwork, and James and his team have now taken the important step of bringing charges under Florida law," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said at a news conference.

In Cuba, authorities have rejected the new accusations against Castro.

“This reprehensible action against the Army General—staged this morning in a pathetic Miami circus with an electoral subtext—has no legal or practical basis whatsoever, nor will it ever have one,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on his X account.

“This maneuver, dressed up in legal terms by anti-Cuban politicians against Raúl and against Cuba, deserves our firm condemnation. It is part of an aggressive agenda and reflects the difficulties they face in trying to justify the blockade and the collective punishment of our people,” the president added.

Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to Díaz-Canel, a trusted loyalist, in 2018.

While Raúl Castro retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, as underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Cuban government’s longtime patron.

After ousting the Venezuelan leader earlier this year, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

Associated Press reporter Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.

Photos of former Presidents Raúl Castro, right, and his late brother Fidel Castro cover a front door in Havana, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Photos of former Presidents Raúl Castro, right, and his late brother Fidel Castro cover a front door in Havana, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

FILE - Cuba's acting President Raul Castro waves to journalists in front the Museum of the Revolution in Havana on March 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano, File)

The parents of one of three children killed in last week's shooting at an elementary school in Oregon have hired attorneys to investigate the school's protocols and how the teenage gunman got his weapon.

Rhoam Summer, 5, was one of three children killed along with a teacher in the attack Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, a mountain-ringed city of about 100,000 in central Oregon. The other two children killed were ages 8 and 11, and a fourth student and another teacher were wounded, police have said.

The attorneys announced the investigation Saturday, saying it will probe various issues, such as whether the school had an active shooter protocol in place and how the gunman, 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, acquired the 12-gauge pump-action shotgun police say he used and where it was originally purchased.

Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said Friday that the school district has “invested heavily” in security cameras, door locks, fencing and other security measures.

“We practice lockdowns with students and staff twice a year at every school,” Cook said. “Rest assured, we will take a hard look at everything that we have done, and what more needs to be done to ensure that our students, our staff and our families are safe in our schools.”

Rhoam's parents, Kelik and Lillian Summer, initially hired attorneys Friday to handle media interview requests, Tim Williams, a personal injury attorney in Bend and co-lead counsel for the parents, said in a phone interview. The boy's parents released their own statement remembering their son as strong and kind with a love for rainbows and unicorns along with sharks and dinosaurs.

“He was 5 years old,” the statement said. “He wanted to go to the pumpkin patch, learn to ride horses, learn to play an instrument, and be a bunny for Halloween.”

Of interest is how the shooter, a minor, accessed his weapon, Williams said.

A law enforcement official briefed on the shooting last week told The Associated Press the shooter’s gun was bought by his mother. The official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

“We don’t know if the shooter’s mother qualified to own a firearm. We don’t know whether or not the dealer was aware that the firearm was being bought for a minor,” Williams said, adding that there are “various issues there we’re trying to suss out.”

Under Oregon law, a minor may possess a shotgun if provided by a parent or by someone else with the parent’s consent.

The attacker’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, has not responded to messages from The Associated Press. Nickerson on Friday told some reporters outside her apartment near the school that if she could have done something to prevent the shooting, she would have.

Police said John got into the school by shooting through locked doors. Authorities said he was not currently enrolled in the Bend-La Pine district but had once been a special needs student at the school.

Williams said they are trying to determine whether the school district is “liable or not.” If it is liable, he added, they'd try to “work with the school district to come to some sort of conclusion, you know, and resolution, ideally safeguarding this from happening again in the future.”

Classes and activities were suspended Monday and Tuesday across the district. No reopening plan has been announced for Silver Rail.

Kelety reported from Phoenix.

Police caution tape surrounds Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)