The Dictatorship
Castro indicted… Developing…
MIAMI (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles as the Trump administration escalated pressure on the island’s socialist government.
The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, who turns 95 next month, was Cuba’s defense minister at the time. The charges, which were secretly filed by a grand jury in April, included murder and destruction of an airplane. Five Cuban military pilots were also charged.
“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Miami at a ceremony coinciding with Cuban independence day to honor those killed. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”
Asked to what lengths American authorities would go to bring Castro to face charges in the U.S., Blanche said: “There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”
Asked what will happen next for Cuba, President Donald Trump said, “We’re going to see.” He added that the U.S. is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”
The charges pose a real threat, observers said, following the capture by U.S. forces in January of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to face drug charges in New York.
“He’s going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter Kornbluh, a specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
Cuban president condemns indictment
While it remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom, the murder and conspiracy charges carry the potential for life in prison or the death penalty upon conviction.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” In a message on social media, he accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating events surrounding the shootdown, including ignoring repeated warnings by Cuban officials at the time that they would defend against “dangerous violations” of their airspace “by notorious terrorists.”
Among those attending Wednesday’s ceremony in downtown Miami was Marlene Alejandre-Triana, whose father, Armando Alejandre Jr, was killed while she was away for her first year of college.
Over the years, she spoke to multiple federal investigators about charging Castro, referring to him as “one of the main architects of the crime.” But none until now had the courage to seek justice for her family and the other victims.
“It has been long overdue,” she said standing before a giant photo of her father.
Trump has threatened military action for months
Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured Maduro, the Cuban government’s longtime patron. After ousting the Venezuelan leader, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.
A Brothers to the Rescue plane flies over The Democracy Movement flotilla at the twelve-mile limit north of Havana, Cuba, July 10, 1999. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
A Brothers to the Rescue plane flies over The Democracy Movement flotilla at the twelve-mile limit north of Havana, Cuba, July 10, 1999. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
Since Maduro’s capture, Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.
Trump’s first administration indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges and used that to justify removing him from power and whisking him to New York to face trial.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged the Cuban people to demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart a new course in relations with the U.S.
“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people,” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a Spanish-language video message. “Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”
Raúl Castro believed to wield power behind the scenes
Cuba’s President Raul Castro listens to the Cuban and Venezuelan national anthems during his welcome ceremony at the Miraflores presidential palace, March 17, 2015, in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
Cuba’s President Raul Castro listens to the Cuban and Venezuelan national anthems during his welcome ceremony at the Miraflores presidential palace, March 17, 2015, in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, Díaz-Canel, in 2018.
While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who previously met secretly with Rubio.
Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana for meetings with Cuban officials, including Castro’s grandson. Two other senior State Department officials met with the grandson in April.
The investigation into Castro stretches back to the 1990s
In 1995, planes flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue buzzed over Havana dropping leaflets urging Cubans to rise up against the Castro government.
After Cuban protests, the Federal Aviation Administration also opened an investigation and met with the group’s leaders to urge them to ground the flights, according to declassified government records obtained by the National Security Archive.
But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian Cessna planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace. All four men aboard were killed. A third plane, carrying the group’s leader, narrowly escaped.
Raúl Castro faced earlier indictment
Mario de la Pena carries a poster with the photos of the four pilots shot down by the Cuban air force MiG-29 fighter jets, his son Mario de la Pena, top right, was among the pilots, during a freedom for Cuba march in Miami, Feb. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
Mario de la Pena carries a poster with the photos of the four pilots shot down by the Cuban air force MiG-29 fighter jets, his son Mario de la Pena, top right, was among the pilots, during a freedom for Cuba march in Miami, Feb. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
Guy Lewis, who was a federal prosecutor in Miami in the 1990s, first uncovered evidence linking senior Cuban military officials to cocaine trafficking by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. Following the shootdown, the investigation expanded, and prosecutors pursued charges against Raúl Castro for leading a vast racketeering conspiracy by Cuba’s armed forces.
In the end, only the head of the Cuban air force and two of the MiG pilots involved in the downing of the planes were indicted but have never been apprehended.
A fourth individual was convicted of leading a Miami-based spy ring called Operation Scorpion that collected intelligence about the flights. He was later swapped for a U.S. intelligence asset imprisoned in Cuba as part of President Barack Obama’s outreach to Cuba.
The shootdown led the U.S. to harden its position against Cuba, even though the Cold War had ended and the Castros’ support for revolution across Latin America was a fading memory.
But Castro himself was spared as the Clinton administration raised concerns about such a high-profile indictment.
___
Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters David Fischer in Miami; Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Meg Kinnard in Houston; Will Weissert in Washington; Michael Weissenstein in New York; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
The Dictatorship
‘Incredibly dangerous’: Capitol officer badly beaten by Jan. 6 rioters says Trump pardons absolved them
When FBI agents confronted Daniel Rodriguez about using a stun gun on a Washington police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, he wept, seeming to express remorse.
“I’m sorry,” he said through tears in a recorded interview after he was arrested in March 2021. “He’s a human being with children, and he’s not a bad guy. He sounds like he’s just doing his job and he’s — I’m an asshole.”
Two years later, as he was being led away after a judge sentenced him to more than 12 years in prison, Rodriguez raised his fist and screamed, “Trump won!”
Rodriguez is now a free man. The hefty prison sentences imposed on him and four other people convicted of assaulting police officer Michael Fanone — who was dragged into the crowd and severely beaten — were all wiped away in one of Donald Trump’s first acts as president in January 2025: He pardoned almost 1,600 people charged or convicted for their involvement in the riot.
Trump has used the clemency power like no president in history, freeing fraudsters, drug traffickers and corrupt politicians.
But his pardon of Jan. 6 defendants, more than 170 of whom pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers, stands apart. MS NOW is spotlighting the clemency granted to Jan. 6 defendants as part of a series on Trump’s pardons, “Justice Interrupted.”
“It’s incredibly dangerous,” Fanone told MS NOW in an interview. “You have individuals who were inspired by Donald Trump’s lies to storm and assault the Capitol and try to prevent the certification of a free and fair election. Donald Trump then absolved them of all of their criminal culpability.”
Trump’s first attorney general and his FBI director each told Congress they opposed pardons for people who hurt police officers, but the president did it anyway. Afterward, even some of his biggest backers balked.
“Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think, was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that’s an OK thing to do,” Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” after the pardons in 2025.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said on the Senate floor this past January, “People that harm police officers and destroy federal buildings should go to prison, and it’s a damn shame they’re out.”
Trump has never explained why he freed those rioters who violently assaulted police officers. When correspondent Peter Alexander confronted the president about his pardon of the man who shocked Fanone in the neck, Trump brushed aside the question.
“Among those you pardoned, D.J. Rodriguez,” Alexander said to Trump. “He drove a stun gun into the neck of a D.C. police officer who was abducted by the mob that day. He later confessed on video to the FBI and pleaded guilty for his crimes. Why does he deserve a pardon?”
Trump replied, “Well, I don’t know. Is it a pardon? Because we’re looking at commutes and we’re looking at pardons.” Told it was a pardon, he responded, “OK, well, we’ll take a look at everything. But I can say this: Murderers today are not even charged.”
But there was nothing, as Trump commented, to “look at.” Pardons are not reversible.
Fanone believes Trump knew exactly what he was doing: rewarding people who committed violence on his behalf.
“I know that he knows that it was violent. I know that he knows that, and I think that that was intentional,” he said.
In addition to Rodriguez, three others who attacked him were spared most or all of their prison terms:
- Albuquerque Cosper Head got 7 1/2 years for dragging Fanone into the mob while yelling, “I got one!”
- Kyle Young was sentenced to seven years, and Lewis Wayne Snoots to six, for helping to restrain Fanone during the attack.
- Thomas Sibick was sentenced to just over four years for assaulting Fanone and stealing his badge and radio.
Liz Oyer, a former Justice Department pardon attorney, said Trump has disregarded the normal tradition of presidential clemency.
“The things that the Justice Department traditionally looks for are acceptance of responsibility, remorse, rehabilitation, a significant track record of good conduct in the community before we would recommend someone for consideration of a presidential pardon,” she said, adding that few, if any, of the Jan. 6 defendants met that qualification.
“This president’s use of the pardon system is really undermining the legitimacy of our justice system,” she said.
In fact, a Lawfare analysis found that at least 97 of the roughly 1,600 people charged in the Capitol attack have been accused of new crimes since Jan. 6, 2021. At least 19 were accused after being pardoned.
One of the first rioters to breach police barricades, Christopher Moynihanpleaded guilty in February in New York to a harassment charge over threats to kill House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Moynihan was later sentenced to three years’ probation.
Zachary Alama man a judge called “one of the most violent and aggressive rioters,” was sentenced in May to seven years in prison after a jury convicted him of committing a home invasion burglary in Virginia.
Andrew Paul Johnsonconvicted of illegally entering the Capitol, was pardoned despite having been accused of molesting children. In May, he was sentenced to life in prison for the sex crimes.
Fanone wasn’t supposed to be at the Capitol that day, but he rushed there when he heard the distress calls.
He was pulled into a crowd of attackers as he was trying to keep them out of the building. He was holding on to his service weapon to keep it from being taken from him. But once he felt the excruciating, debilitating shock from Rodriguez’s weapon, he knew he was in a dire situation; in fact, he thought he might be killed.
“I knew at that point that I was not going to be able to fight my way out of this,” Fanone remembered. “I wasn’t even going to be able to maintain control of my weapon. The only solution here was that people in the crowd helped me, and when I yelled out that I have kids, it worked.”
His doctors say Fanone suffered a heart attack.
Trump supporters have wrongly called Fanone a “crisis actor,” disputing that he really was attacked. Ed Martin, who once represented Jan. 6 defendants and is now the Justice Department’s pardons attorney, called him a “fake cop.”
Fanone says his life, and the lives of his loved ones, has never been the same.
“My mother’s been the target of swatting events eight times. She had a credible bomb threat called into her home,” he said.
“She had an individual pull up to her house in a pickup truck, approach her in her front yard while she was raking leaves, and throw a bag of dog feces at her.”
In an apparent attempt to wipe the charges, convictions or sentences of Jan. 6 offenders from public knowledge, the Justice Department recently took down press releases naming them from its website, calling it “partisan propaganda.”
Anyone who tries to find the official DOJ announcements of the convictions or sentencing of the men who attacked Fanone will see only broken links.
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was booed loudly by fans inside Madison Square Garden when he was shown on video screens during the national anthem as he became the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.
Chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” echoed through the arena as Avery Wilson sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but they they gave way to boos moments later as Trump was displayed on the jumbo screens giving a military salute. The jeers ended when the U.S. flag followed him on the screens, and fans cheered when New York Knicks players were shown. Mentions of the San Antonio Spurs also elicited vociferous boos.
The president was unfazed. “It was, I think, mostly cheers,” he told reporters after the game before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “It was loud, and it was very enthusiastic.”
Trump watched Game 3 from Knicks owner James Dolan’s suite, along with granddaughter Kai, personal adviser Boris Epshteyn and Cabinet secretaries Lee Zeldin, Sean Duffy and Doug Burgum. He sat next to Dolan for the first quarter and spent part of the second talking to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman.
Trump’s Marine One helicopter flew from his home in New Jersey and landed near Wall Street before his motorcade made its way up through Manhattan and to the arena roughly an hour before tipoff. He encountered a handful of people making rude gestures, and outside the area, one group held signs saying “Trump must go.”
He settled into Dolan’s suite shortly afterward.
During the afternoon before Trump’s arrival, the New York Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service set up a large perimeter surrounding Madison Square Garden. Fans lined up to get inside the arena more than four hours before tipoff, in a scene more closely resembling New Year’s Eve in Times Square than the usual leadup to a basketball game.
They were required to provide a ticket or pass to get past various checkpoints, along with going through a Transportation Security Administration-style magnetometer. Secret Service personnel and police were positioned at every corner and in large numbers. Daily commuters, tourists visiting Manhattan and fans were all confounded at various times as they tried to maneuver the security.
New Yorkers forced to adjust
After traveling from his home in Florida for the game, Knicks fan Greg Weldon said the main inconvenience faced so far has been the lack of information.
“We’ve asked so many cops, secret service, guys with machine guns, what to do, where should we go,” he said. “Nobody knows.”
Knicks coach Mike Brown and Spurs counterpart Mitch Johnson downplayed any concept of being inconvenienced by the closures and enhanced security because of Trump.
“There’s a lot going on, and I’d much rather be a part of it than not,” Johnson said.
With security stepped up, a watch party outside was canceled, and ticket-holders were not allowed to bring bags inside the Garden. Fans had gathered near the arena to watch games during this playoff run, during which the Knicks have won 13 games in a row to reach the final for the first time since 1999 and move two victories from their first NBA title since 1973.
“We are looking forward to bringing back watch parties for Game 4,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference Monday. “But I think New Yorkers are used to presidents coming to town, and they understand that that generally means lockdowns of areas and that’s what you’re going to see tonight at the Garden.”
The Knicks’ streak was broken Monday night, with the Spurs winning 115-111. Game 4 will be played Wednesday night at the Garden.
Incidents heighten attention to Trump’s security
This is the latest major sporting event Trump has attended during his time as president, and the security measures have created major hassles for fans.
Thousands of fans missed the start of last year’s U.S. Open men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner because of lengthy security lines. Even though the U.S. Tennis Association pushed back the start of the match by a half-hour, many fans still couldn’t get in because added measures meant that they had to go through screening not only when they arrived at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center but again in front of the steps into Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Trump watched from a suite.
Federal law enforcement officials have been reexamining Trump’s security in light of three incidents in the past two years: a shooting at a 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania; the discovery of a man armed with a rifle as Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, Florida, later that year; and the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Asked Sunday his thoughts on Trump attending, Knicks center Mitchell Robinson said: “Cool, I guess. We can still get out there and play (no matter) who’s here and who’s not.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other dignitaries were also at the game, as were Yankees Hall of Famer Derek Jeter and two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning of the Giants.
It was already hard enough for Knicks fans to get inside Madison Square Garden because of astronomical ticket prices. The get-in price for a ticket is higher than the average cost of monthly rent in New York, surging over $5,000.
The best seats were listed for tens of thousands of dollars. Mamdani said he bought his ticket, which he said was standing-room-only, for about $1,000 directly from Madison Square Garden.
The difficulty of seeing the game in-person has prompted fans to crowd bars, streets and watch parties all over the city. The watch party near the Garden has become a major event all through the playoffs, but with Trump attending, that event was moved a few blocks away outside the security perimeter, at Bryant Park.
“We improvise,” said Knicks guard Jose Alvarado, who is a New York native. “We’re New Yorkers. We’re going to find a way to watch a game, and that’s what we’re doing.”
___
AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.
___
NBA AP: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
The Dictatorship
Platner romps to victory in Maine Democratic primary, will face Collins despite controversies
Graham Platner prevailed in the Maine Democratic Senate primary, breaking 50% of the vote and clinching the nomination to face Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican whom national Democrats hope to topple on their way to recapturing control of the Senate in November.
Platner had 75% of the votes with only 8% of the ballots counted when The Associated Press called the race Tuesday evening, suggesting a dominant performance. Maine Gov. Janet Mills had just 19%. Mills’ name remained on the ballot despite the fact she dropped out of the contest in April.
The oysterman and political newcomer triumphed at the ballot box despite allegations that roiled his campaign before Election Day: that he sent sexually explicit messages to women outside his marriage and behaved in a demeaning manner toward some former girlfriends, including two incidents in which he was allegedly physically menacing to one of them. Platner denied those incidents.
“This is the state that raised me. This is the state that saved me,” Platner said at his victory party. “Maine, I love you. I love this state.”
Platner chastised national Democrats, who he said kept seeking a headline that would tarnish him and were missing the point. “In trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us.”
“This is the state that raised me. This is the state that saved me,” Graham Platner said at his victory party. “Maine, I love you. I love this state.”
The Democrat will now face Collins, a five-term incumbent who ran unopposed in the GOP Senate primary.
Platner also took harsh aim at Collins, calling her “spineless,” and said she “lied to us” about protecting abortion rights codified under Roe v. Wade after supporting Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
“Susan Collins doesn’t serve us. She serves Donald Trump,” Platner said. “We will take back the Senate seat. We will take back our power … I want you to imagine what you will feel like when we hold Trump and his criminal enterprise to account.”
In coming in first — and avoiding further rounds of counting as part of Maine’s ranked choice voting system — Platner technically defeated Mills in the Democratic primary. Mills was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., but her campaign never took off and she suspended it in April.
But her name remained on the ballot and voters could have chosen to side with their former governor as something of a protest vote against Platner.
Despite early strength, Platner’s road to nomination was paved with controversy.
Reports surfaced the week before the primary that Platner had sent sexually explicit text messages to multiple women while married. His wife, Amy Gertner, publicly defended him and criticized the release of private communications. Platner acknowledged he and his wife had gone through something difficult in their marriage “because of me” and denied the characterization of the messages.
A private meeting between Platner and Senate Democrats followed as questions mounted over whether his personal conduct would impede his ability to challenge Collins. Despite the controversies, key progressive leaders, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have continued to publicly support his candidacy.
Those allegations were followed by a report in The New York Times in which one of Platner’s ex-girlfriends accused him of physically threatening her while they were dating. The Times’ report cited several former romantic partners who described “toxic” past relationships with him. Platner has denied allegations of “physicality.”
Several of Platner’s other past romantic partners who spoke to the Times described him as a “caring” partner and said they remain friends with him, according to the report.
The allegations added to several controversies surrounding the Marine Corps veteran’s insurgent Senate campaign. He faced backlash last fall over a Nazi-style tattoo he has since covered and defamatory comments he reportedly made about victims of sexual assault in Reddit posts that were deleted before the launch of his campaign. Platner has said he was unaware of the tattoo’s Nazi symbolism when he got it in 2007.
His populist campaign, however, resonated heavily with Maine voters who deemed him the best fighter to stand up to President Donald Trump and his allies in Washington, a group they say includes Collins.
Platner also won the support of prominent national Democrats who coalesced behind him in one of the most consequential races of this midterm cycle even after the fresh allegations came to light. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., stood by Platner at his first major campaign rally in Bar Harbor following the Times report.
Mills, on the other hand, did not endorse Platner when she suspended her campaign after months of trailing him in polls and in fundraising. Instead, the governor, who is term-limited, reminded Maine voters that she is “still on the ballot” as new allegations engulfed her opponent’s campaign.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
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