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A Florida judge has issued an arrest warrant for former Cuban President Raul Castro, 95, the state\u2019s attorney general announced on Monday. The move marks another escalation in Washington\u2019s months-long pressure campaign against Havana.<\/p>\n
The warrant pertains to the 1996 shooting down of two American planes operated by anti-communist Cuban exiles off Cuba\u2019s coast. US authorities accuse Castro of ordering the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we are announcing state charges against Raul Castro with an arrest warrant for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,\u201d<\/em> Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said at a press conference in Miami. Prosecutors had gathered evidence and witness testimony linking a Cuban spy network to the operation that allegedly led Castro to order the planes shot down, he said.<\/p>\n In May, the US Justice Department separately indicted Castro and five others on charges including murder, conspiracy to kill US nationals and destruction of aircraft. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the indictment a \u201cpolitical maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation\u201d<\/em> and accused Washington of using it as a pretext to justify future military action against Havana.<\/p>\n In February of 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two US planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group, killing four men. Havana has maintained that it acted in self-defense against aircraft that violated its airspace.<\/p>\n The CIA has a long history of working with Cuban exile groups against Havana, most notably during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Washington imposed a broad trade embargo on Cuba the following year.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Havana as part of what he called the \u201cDonroe doctrine\u201d<\/em> \u2013 a modern interpretation of the 19th-century hegemonic political strategy known as the Monroe Doctrine, which aims to assert US dominance in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n After US forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Trump imposed a near-total energy blockade of Cuba and announced that the island will be \u201cnext\u201d<\/em> in line for regime change. The restrictions have led to a widespread energy crisis and frequent blackouts <\/a>in Cuba.<\/p>\n Russia, China, Mexico and several other nations have provided humanitarian aid to Cuba. Moscow delivered around 700,000 barrels of oil to the island in March.<\/p>\n