In case you missed it — and there is no way our regular readers could have because I think I've written about it no fewer than five times this week — on Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged the 94-year-old Cuban dictator Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and murder for his role in the shooting down of two Brothers to the Rescue civilian humanitarian aid planes in 1996. His actions led to the deaths of three United States citizens and one permanent resident of the U.S.
When Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made the official announcement from Miami, something he said stood out to me:
The United States and Donald Trump will not forget its citizens. If you kill Americans, we will pursue you, no matter who you are or no matter what title you hold, and in this case, no matter how much time has passed.
You would think that would be the case for every man who serves as the president of the United States, but quite frankly, it's not.
As I said, on February 24, 1996, four men died while simply trying to help the Cuban people. Brothers to the Rescue is a nonprofit group that fights communism by distributing information that opposes Cuba's communist government. They also, at one time, would fly around searching for Cuban people leaving the country by raft and rescue them.
The Cuban regime deemed the group terrorists, and Castro ordered the Cuban air force to "knock them into the sea" on that fateful day, while they were flying over international waters. Carlos Costa; Armando Alejandre, Jr.; Mario de la Peña; and Pablo Morales died at the hands of a tyrant while simply trying to help their fellow man. That was 30 years ago.
Bill Clinton was president at the time. To his credit, he condemned the murders, calling them "a flagrant violation of international law" and confirming that the planes were unarmed and posed no threat to Cuba. He also took action, calling for a UN Security Council meeting to condemn the actions, suspending charter flights from the U.S. to Cuba, and compensating the victims' families via frozen Cuban assets. He also signed the Helms-Burton Act into law, which codified the U.S. embargo against Cuba, made it more difficult for presidents to lift Cuban sanctions, and allowed lawsuits against foreign companies doing business with Cuba.
Previously, Clinton had not been that enthusiastic about the Helms-Burton Act, but the shootdown infuriated him and flipped a switch, as it should have. He called it a "justified response to the Cuban government’s unjustified, unlawful attack on two unarmed U.S. civilian aircraft."
Clinton's DOJ even indicted the pilots and air force general involved, but it held off on Castro out of "diplomatic concerns." And toward the end of his presidency, Clinton softened on Cuba and was even seen shaking Fidel Castro's hand at a UN summit in 2000. I guess all was forgotten in four years.
George W. Bush was notably tougher on Cuba. He kept the Helms-Burton Act in place, and he expanded support for Cuban dissidents. During his presidency, Fidel Castro got sick, and Raúl took his place as "president." Bush called on the Cuban people to reject the transition and called Fidel's brother a "dictator in waiting," but his DOJ also never pursued charges against Raúl for his role in the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown. If there was ever a time to do it, that would have been it.
And then came Barack Obama, who not only didn't pursue these charges against Raúl, but basically made him his very own BFF. As we all know, Obama softened the U.S. stance on Cuba, restoring diplomatic relations, easing sanctions, reopening the U.S. embassy, loosening travel restrictions, and removing the regime from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list in 2015.
He also met with Raúl on several occasions and as the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928, long before "the Revolution." Obama brought Michelle and the kids along, and they hugged, shook hands, and took in a baseball game, essentially normalizing the Cuban dictatorship and infuriating many people. It was a slap in the face to everyone who'd fled the communist hellhole in the decades leading up to that moment.
I can only imagine how the families of those four dead men from Brothers to the Rescue felt, watching their president play nice with the man who killed their fathers, husbands, uncles, and sons.
A picture is worth a thousand words:
While Donald Trump is indicting Cuban communist dictator Raúl Castro, Barack Obama was attending baseball games with him in Havana. pic.twitter.com/egW8I0Hndc
— Enrique Alejandro (@EnriAlejandroTV) May 20, 2026
During his first term, Trump worked to reverse the damage Obama did when it came to Cuban relations, but the Joe Biden administration came along and tried to revive it. During his last week in office, Biden (or whomever was filling in for him) went absolutely nuts, removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list once again, revoking Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-5 (which created the Cuba Restricted Entities List), and suspending Title III lawsuits under Helms-Burton for six months.
Needless to say, the almost 30-year-old dormant federal grand jury investigation into Raúl Castro was not revived or unsealed during Biden's disastrous four years.
But on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, thanks to Trump and his administration's leadership and several determined members of Congress, all of that changed. The man who ordered the murders of U.S. citizens who were unarmed and not a threat to him or his country, the man who openly admits and brags about it, is being held accountable for his actions, and the families of these victims are finally learning that their loved ones' lives truly mattered.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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