MIAMI (WSVN) - As the Trump administration prepares to indict former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, all eyes are on the Cuban people, as concern grows over possible U.S. intervention, and Fidel Castro’s daughter gave a stern warning amid rising tensions between the two countries.
Wednesday morning, 7News spoke with Cuban Americans at Little Havana’s Café Versailles. They welcomed the news of the expected indictment, which is in connection to the Feb. 24, 1996 downing of two unarmed planes over international waters.
The shootdown claimed the lives of four men — three U.S. citizens and a legal U.S. resident — who were on a humanitarian mission from Brothers to the Rescue,an exile group of volunteer pilots that searched for people in rafts trying to flee Cuba.
“They have to do it, ’cause this guy did something that it was wrong. He didn’t have to shoot those guys down,” said John Gonzalez. “They killed them, so they have to pay for it.”
“The Castro regime, take it out of Cuba,” said another customer.
Earlier this week, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel took to social media to warn that any U.S. military action could result in a “bloodbath,” and he said Cuba would resist any intervention. The post reads in part:
“The threat [of military aggression against Cuba] is already an international crime. If it materializes, it will cause a bloodbath of incalculable consequences, plus the destructive impact on regional peace and stability.”
Díaz-Canel stressed Cuba’s right to defend itself, though he also has repeatedly said the island poses no threat to U.S. national security and that they do not want war.
Back on U.S, soil, however, lawmakers are not convinced.
“Yeah, [Cuba] is 90 miles away from the United States. There’s a very strong Russian and Chinese presence,” said U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Fla. “What the Russians and the Chinese are doing in Cuba is not to help the U.S. national security interests or to help the Cuban people.”
Díaz-Canel has put pressure on the U.S. to lift economic sanctions placed on the island.
But Díaz-Balart said certain processes need to happen first.
“The U.S. law, that’s signed by President [Bill] Clinton, passed by Congress in a bipartisan way, states that there are some conditions that have to take place before normalization, and that includes to release all the political prisoners, allow for some basic freedoms — freedom of press, freedom of independent labor unions, freedom of political parties — and then calling for elections,” said Díaz-Balart. “Then the sanctions go away in [their] entirety. That’s what the U.S. law is.”
With tensions rising, Alina Fernández, the daughter of Fidel Castro who lives in exile in Miami, said she felt a wide array of emotions this week.
“I feel like every other Cuban these times: hopeful, frustrated, sad,” she said.
She also had a warning for the Cuban people.
“I would remind everybody that the capacity for reaction of the Cuban regime shouldn’t be undermined or underestimated. That can make the difference between a bloodbath and something else,” she said.
Despite the Trump administration ramping up their rhetoric and economic sanctions on Cuba, U.S. military officials have publicly said there are no imminent plans at this time to invade Cuba. But with the looming indictment, it appears to be a fluid situation.
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