Raúl Castro may be a thin, limpish, bespectacled 94-year-old grandfather whose revolutionary days have long since passed him. But as far as the United States government is concerned, he is now a fugitive of justice who is wanted on an assortment of criminal charges.
According to the indictment, Castro, the younger brother of the late Fidel Castro who overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship in 1959 and turned Cuba into a communist state roughly 90 miles from the United States, in 1996 ordered the Cuban air force to shoot down two civilian planes operated by Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue.
The destruction of the planes killed four people, including three American citizens, and froze what had been at that time some small improvements in the U.S.-Cuba relationship.
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