What to Know About the Raúl Castro Indictment

Charges in the 1996 shootdown of two planes, killing four people, carry a maximum penalty of death or life in prison. The former Cuban leader is 94.

Cuban leader Raúl Castro, next to his grandson and bodyguard, Raul Rodriguez Castro, attends the May Day parade at Revolution Square of Havana, on May 1, 2017. Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images

Cuban leader Raúl Castro, next to his grandson and bodyguard, Raul Rodriguez Castro, attends the May Day parade at Revolution Square of Havana, on May 1, 2017. Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on May 20 charging former Cuban President Raúl Castro, 94, with the 1996 killing of four humanitarian aid workers. Three of those victims were U.S. nationals.

“For 30 years, the families of these men have waited. The Miami community has waited. Our country has waited,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida told reporters at a press conference.