May 20, 2026
The Revolutionary Government condemns in the strongest terms the despicable accusation by the U.S. Department of Justice announced on May 20 and touted for several weeks against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution.
The U.S. government lacks the legitimacy and jurisdiction to carry out this action. This is a despicable and infamous act of political provocation, based on the dishonest manipulation of the incident that led to the downing, in Cuban airspace in February 1996, of two aircraft operated by the Miami-based terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue, whose repeated violation of Cuban airspace for hostile purposes was widely known.
The U.S. government, furthermore, distorts other historical truths regarding the event it uses as a pretext. It omits, among other details, the multiple formal complaints filed by Cuba during that period with the State Department, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), regarding the more than 25 serious and deliberate violations of Cuban airspace carried out by the aforementioned organization between 1994 and 1996, in open violation of international law and U.S. law itself.
It also ignores the public and official warnings issued by Cuban authorities regarding the inadmissibility of such violations of its airspace and the alert messages conveyed directly to the President of the United States regarding the seriousness and possible consequences of such violations.
Cuba’s response to the violation of its airspace constituted an act of self-defense, protected by the United Nations Charter, the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, and the principles of air sovereignty and proportionality.
The United States, which has been a victim of the use of civil aviation for terrorist purposes, does not and would not permit the hostile and provocative violation of its territory by foreign aircraft and would act, as it has demonstrated, with the use of force.
The U.S. government’s inaction in response to the warnings conveyed by Cuba at that time laid bare its complicity in the planning and execution from its territory of violent, illegal, and terrorist acts against the Cuban government and people—a recurring and systematic practice from the triumph of the Revolution to the present day.
It is highly cynical that this accusation is made by the very same government that has murdered nearly 200 people and destroyed 57 vessels in international waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific, far from U.S. territory, through the disproportionate use of military force, for alleged links to drug trafficking operations that have never been proven—acts that constitute crimes of extrajudicial executions under international law and murders under U.S. law itself.
This spurious accusation against the Leader of the Cuban Revolution adds to the desperate attempts by anti-Cuban elements to construct a fraudulent narrative in an effort to justify the collective and ruthless punishment of the noble Cuban people, through the reinforcement 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 self-defense, as recognized by the Charter of the United Nations.
The Cuban people reaffirm their unwavering resolve to defend the Homeland and their Socialist Revolution and, with the greatest strength and firmness, their unrestricted and unwavering support for Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, Leader of the Cuban Revolution.
Homeland or Death, We Shall Overcome.
Havana, May 20, 2026.
“Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.”
Source: Granma, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
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