Live updates: Former Cuban president Raúl Castro indicted in US over 1996 fatal downing of two planes
What’s in this for Donald Trump?published at 17:50 BST
Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter
Donald Trump will not be at today’s announcement in Miami, but his presence will very much be felt.
Ultimately, today’s indictment – and his administration’s wider Cuba policies – is one that could benefit him politically.
Trump has long enjoyed significant support among Cuban-Americans in Florida, nearly 70% of whom voted in his favour during the 2024 presidential election.
Since returning to office, however, that support appeared to have soured. Partly, that is a result of the administration’s immigration policies, which have not spared more recently arrived Cubans from deportations, immigration detention centres and the denial of political asylum.
Many Cuban-Americans, however, feel extremely strongly about the Cuban government that many of their families fled after Fidel and Raul Castro toppled the government of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
It was this exile community that spawned the Brothers to the Rescue organisation involved in the 1996 shoot-down incident at the heart of the indictment.
Any policy that is seen as damaging towards the Communist government, or a step towards eventually removing them from power, will be immensely popular.
Notably, there are currently several powerful Cuban-American figures in US politics, including Miami-born Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Florida representatives María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez, the latter of whom was born in Havana and is the only Cuban-born lawmaker serving on Capitol Hill.
