UPDATE 6-Former Cuban President Raul Castro is indicted in US

Former Cuban President Raul Castro has been indicted in the United States, a senior Trump ​administration official told Reuters on Wednesday, in a major escalation in Washington's pressure campaign ‌against the island's ​communist government.

Cuba's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The indictment comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a regime change in Cuba, where Castro's communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.

"America will not tolerate a rogue state harboring hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations just ninety miles from the American homeland," Trump said in ‌a statement earlier on Wednesday. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that the island does not represent a threat.

The indictment marks a new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals. After taking power, Fidel Castro struck an alliance with the Soviet Union, then seized U.S.-citizen owned businesses and properties. The U.S. has since maintained an economic embargo on the nation of about 10 million.

The two sides have talked intermittently over the years. Diplomatic relations briefly improved during former Democratic President Barack Obama's second term, but Trump, a Republican, has taken a harder line. RUBIO OFFERS $100 MILLION IN AID

The charges against Raul ‌Castro, 94, are expected to be based on a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles, a U.S. Justice Department official told Reuters last week on the condition of anonymity. The Miami U.S. Attorney's office is ‌planning to host an event starting at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) to honor victims of the incident. The Justice Department said on Tuesday it would make an announcement in conjunction with the ceremony, but did not provide details about the announcement.

The ceremony is due to take place on the anniversary of the end of a four-year U.S. military occupation of Cuba on May 20, 1902, which itself followed centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Cuba's government does not consider the date to mark the country's independence day, arguing that it remained subservient to Washington until the 1959 revolution. In a post on X, Diaz-Canel said that in Cuban history, May 20 signified "intervention, interference, dispossession, frustration."

Under Trump, the U.S. has effectively imposed ⁠a blockade on Cuba by ​threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and ⁠exacerbating its worst crisis in decades. In a video message addressed to the Cuban people on Wednesday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents were Cuban immigrants to the United States, offered to forge a new relationship between the two countries. He said the U.S. could provide $100 million in aid, and blamed Cuba's leaders for shortages of electricity, ⁠food and fuel.

In response, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called Rubio "the mouthpiece of corrupt and vengeful interests" but did not rule out accepting the aid. "He keeps talking about an aid package of 100 million dollars that Cuba has not rejected, but whose cynicism is evident to anyone in light of the devastating effect of ​the economic blockade and the energy stranglehold," Rodriguez wrote in a post on X.

Cuba has yet to comment directly on the criminal case against Raul Castro. BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE

Born in 1931, Raul Castro was a key figure alongside his older brother in the ⁠guerrilla war that toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. He helped defeat the U.S.-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and served as defense minister for decades. He succeeded his brother as president in 2008 and stepped down in 2018, but remains a powerful behind-the-scenes figure in Cuban politics.

He was defense minister at the time of the 1996 incident. The two small planes ⁠that ​were shot down were being flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a group of Miami-based Cuban exile pilots. All four men aboard were killed.

The group said its mission was to search the Florida Straits for Cuban rafters fleeing the island, and routinely flew near the Cuban coast. The Cuban government has argued the strike was a legitimate response to the planes intruding on Cuban airspace. Fidel Castro said Cuba's military had acted on "standing orders" to down planes entering Cuban airspace. He said Raul Castro did not give a specific order to shoot the planes.

The U.S. condemned ⁠the attack and imposed sanctions, but did not pursue criminal charges against either Castro brother. The Justice Department charged three Cuban military officers in 2003 but they were never extradited. The International Civil Aviation Organization later concluded the shootdown took place over international waters.

The filing of the ⁠criminal case against a U.S. adversary like Castro recalls the earlier drug-trafficking indictment ⁠of imprisoned former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Havana's. The Trump administration cited that indictment as a justification for the January 3 raid on Caracas by the U.S. military in which Maduro was captured and brought to New York to face the charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Trump says Cuba's communist government is corrupt, and in March threatened that Cuba "is next" after Venezuela. Diaz-Canel said on Monday that any U.S. military ‌action against Cuba would lead to a "bloodbath."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)