ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC)—Cuba on Wednesday condemned “in the strongest terms” what it described as the despicable accusation by the United States Department of Justice against former president Raúl Castro.

Washington announced criminal charges against the 94-year-old brother of revolutionist Fidel Castro, in what political observers say is the latest escalation of tensions between the two countries.

Raul is reportedly charged with conspiracy to kill US nationals, destruction of an aircraft, and murder, alongside several other defendants listed in the indictment.

The charges reportedly stem from a 1996 incident where two civilian aeroplanes were shot down, killing four men, including three American citizens. At the time, Castro was Cuba’s defence minister and is alleged to have ordered the attack.

The aircraft reportedly belonged to the Cuban-American exile organisation Brothers to the Rescue.

Speaking at Freedom Tower in Miami, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the US would also charge Castro with destruction of aircraft, and four individual counts of murder over the deaths of Armando Alejandre Jr, Carlos Alberto Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.

“The United States, and President Trump, does not, and will not, forget its citizens,” Blanche said.

But in a statement issued here, the Cuban Embassy said that “the United States government lacks the legitimacy and jurisdiction to carry out this action.

“It is a despicable and infamous act of political provocation, based on the dishonest manipulation of the incident that led to the downing, in February 1996, of two aircraft operated by the Miami-based terrorist organisation Brothers to the Rescue over Cuban airspace, which repeated violations of Cuban airspace for hostile purposes were of common knowledge.”

Further, Havana said that Washington “distorts other historical truths about the event it uses as a pretext.

“It omits, among other details, the numerous formal complaints filed by Cuba during that period with the State Department, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regarding more than 25 serious and deliberate violations of Cuban airspace committed by the cited organisation between 1994 and 1996, in blatant transgression of international law and US legislation itself.

“It also ignores public and official warnings issued by Cuban authorities about the inadmissibility of such violations of its airspace and alert messages conveyed directly to the president of the United States about the seriousness and possible consequences of such transgressions.

“Cuba’s response to the violation of its airspace constituted an act of legitimate self-defence, protected by the Charter of the United Nations, the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, and the principles of air sovereignty and proportionality.”

Cuba said that the United States, which has been a victim of the use of civil aviation for terrorist purposes, “does not and would not permit the hostile and provocative violation of foreign aircraft over its territory and would act, as it has demonstrated, with the use of force.

“The inaction of the US government in the face of the warnings issued by Cuba at the time, revealed its complicity in the planning and execution from its territory of violent, illegal and terrorist actions against the Cuban government and people, a recurring and systematic practice since the triumph of the revolution to the present day.”

Havana said that it is “highly cynical that this accusation is made by the same government that has murdered nearly 200 people and destroyed 57 vessels in international waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific, far from the territory of the United States, with the disproportionate use of military force, for alleged links to drug trafficking operations that were never proven, which qualify as extrajudicial executions, in accordance with International Law, and murders, according to US laws themselves.”.

It said that “this spurious accusation” against the leader of the Cuban Revolution adds to the desperate attempts by anti-Cuban elements to construct a fraudulent narrative in an effort to justify the collective and ruthless punishment against the noble Cuban people, through the strengthening of unilateral coercive measures, including the unjust and genocidal energy blockade and threats of armed aggression.

“Cuba reaffirms its commitment to peace and its firm determination to exercise the inalienable right to self-defence, recognised by the Charter of the United Nations,” Havana said, adding that “the Cuban people reaffirm their unwavering decision to defend the Homeland and its Socialist Revolution and, with the greatest strength and firmness, their unrestricted and unchanging support for Army General Raúl Castro Ruz”.