We republish below statements from the Union of Young Communists and the Cuban Revolutionary Government on the indictment of Raul Castro by a US Grand Jury in Miami, Florida on 20 May.
Union of Young Communists: We will not allow Cuban youth to be manipulated!
We will not allow Cuban youth to be manipulated or have our history distorted!
We, Cuban youth, strongly condemn the false accusation made by the Government of the United States against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz. It is false, as they attempt to manipulate the facts. Neither humanitarian purposes, nor civil organisations, nor international waters. Brothers to the Rescue is a terrorist organisation based in Miami, with links to drug trafficking, which repeatedly violated Cuban airspace.
They are the same people who, in addition to illegal flights over Cuban territory, carried out espionage activities, interference in telecommunications, and plans for energy sabotage. The disreputable founder of that organisation, José Basulto León, has an extensive criminal record, which includes links to terrorists responsible for bombings, the assassination of Cuban diplomats, and attacks on civilian installations, as well as involvement in subversive and terrorist activities against Cuba.
The US government attempts to dishonestly distort the facts. They are untruthful in pointing the finger at Cuba. Our government reported more than 25 violations of national airspace by that organisation in just two years, between 1994 and 1996. The seriousness of these violations and their possible consequences was warned about.
It would have been enough simply to eliminate the impunity with which they were preparing their actions against the Greater Antilles, and to respond to the repeated warnings issued from Cuba, in order to avoid the tragic outcome.
Why, then, did the United States government choose inaction? All it demonstrates is complicity with the violent acts carried out from that country against the Cuban people. If there is insistence on finding a culprit, it lies with the anti-Cuban mafia in Miami and the US government’s own inaction.
Cuba exercised its right to legitimate defence, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law, and with the firm conviction of the Cuban people to safeguard every inch of their land without foreign interference.
US cynicism knows no bounds. They dare to label an act of legitimate defence while they themselves have cold-bloodedly killed, without presenting concrete evidence, in international waters and far from their territory, local fishermen. Between 2 September and 5 May, around 200 lives have been taken by the US government in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific.
The false allegations being promoted today are desperate and fraudulent attempts to provoke a military aggression against Cuba. We Cuban youth reaffirm our loyalty to Army General Raúl Castro Ruz. On the 95th anniversary of his birth, he is our living example of honour, integrity, patriotism, and fidelity to the Revolution.
The vast majority of us were not yet born when these events took place, but we know the history – not the version they try to fabricate from Miami, but the one this people has truly built in defence of its nation.
National Bureau of the Union of Young Communists
Revolutionary Government of Cuba reaffirms its commitment to peace and right to self-defence
The Revolutionary Government strongly condemns in the most forceful terms the vile accusation made by the United States Department of Justice, announced on 20 May and promoted over several weeks, against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution.
The Government of the United States lacks both 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 shooting down, over Cuban airspace in February 1996, of two aircraft operated by the terrorist organisation Brothers to the Rescue, based in Miami, whose repeated violations of Cuban airspace for hostile purposes were widely known.
The US government also distorts other historical truths regarding the event it uses as a pretext. It omits, among other details, the multiple formal complaints submitted by Cuba at the time to the US Department of State, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), regarding more than 25 serious and deliberate violations of Cuban airspace carried out by that organisation between 1994 and 1996, in open breach of international law and US domestic legislation itself.
It also ignores the public and official warnings issued by Cuban authorities about the inadmissibility of such violations of its airspace, as well as the alerts directly communicated to the President of the United States regarding the seriousness and possible consequences of these transgressions.
Cuba’s response to the violation of its airspace constituted an act of legitimate defence, protected under the Charter of the United Nations, the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, and the principles of air sovereignty and proportionality.
The United States, which itself has been a victim of the use of civil aviation for terrorist purposes, does not permit and would not permit the hostile and provocative violation of its airspace by foreign aircraft, and it would act, as it has demonstrated, with the use of force.
The inaction of the US government in response to the warnings then issued by Cuba exposed its complicity with the planning and execution from its territory of violent, illegal, and terrorist actions against the Cuban government and people – a recurrent and systematic practice from the triumph of the Revolution to the present day.
It is profoundly cynical that this accusation is being made by the same government that has killed nearly 200 people and destroyed 57 vessels in international waters in the Caribbean and the Pacific, far from US territory, through the disproportionate use of military force, on alleged links to drug trafficking that have never been proven – acts which qualify as extrajudicial executions under international law and as murders under US law itself.
This spurious accusation against the Leader of the Cuban Revolution is added to the desperate attempts by anti-Cuban elements to construct a fraudulent narrative aimed at justifying the collective and ruthless punishment of 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 legitimate defence, as recognised in the Charter of the United Nations.
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 steadfast support for Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, Leader of the Cuban Revolution.
Homeland or Death, We Shall Overcome.
Havana, 20 May 2026
Year of the Centenary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz
