The indictment announced this week by the United States against former Cuban president Raúl Castro is the latest episode in the pressure campaign that the Trump administration has waged for months against the island's communist government. Castro was charged over his alleged role in the 1996 downing of two light aircraft operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue. At the time, Castro was defence minister, while his brother, Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution and the dominant figure in the island's politics for more than half a century, was running the country as president.
Today, at 94, Raúl Castro remains a central figure within Cuba's power structure, even after formally stepping back from front-line politics. The younger brother of Fidel Castro, the pair led the revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and put in place the system that still governs the island.
