WASHINGTON/MIAMI: Former Cuban President Raul Castro has been ‌indicted in the United States on murder ​charges, court records showed on Wednesday, in a major escalation in Washington's pressure campaign against the island's communist government.Cuba's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Castro, 94, last appeared in public in Cuba earlier this month, and there is no evidence that he has since left the island or that the government would allow him to be extradited.The indictment comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a regime change in Cuba, where Castro's communists have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.The details of the charges were not immediately available. A U.S. Justice Department official told Reuters last week on the condition of anonymity that the charges against him are expected to be based on a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes ⁠operated by a group of Cuban exiles.Trump in a statement earlier on Wednesday called Cuba a "rogue state harboring hostile foreign military" and framed his administration's actions regarding the Caribbean island as part of a broader effort to expand U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere."From the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment," Trump said at a Coast Guard Academy event in New London, Connecticut.Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that the island does not represent a threat.The indictment marks a new low in relations between the longtime ‌Cold War rivals.After taking power, Fidel Castro struck an alliance with the Soviet Union, then seized U.S.-owned businesses and properties. The U.S. has since maintained an economic embargo on the nation of about 10 million.The two sides have talked intermittently over the years. Diplomatic relations briefly improved during former Democratic President Barack Obama's second term, but Trump, a Republican, has taken a harder line.MIAMI CEREMONYThe Miami U.S. Attorney's office is planning to host an event starting at 1 p.m. ‌EDT (1700 GMT) to honor victims of the 1996 incident. The Justice Department said on Tuesday it would make an announcement in conjunction with the ‌ceremony, but did not provide details about the announcement.Members of Miami's large Cuban-American community gathered outside the city's freedom tower, where the ceremony is due to take place."We all hoped for a long time, ‌for many years that this would happen," said Bobby Ramirez, a 62-year-old musician ‌who left Cuba in 1971 when he was 7 years old.The ceremony is due to take place on the anniversary of the end of a four-year U.S. military occupation of Cuba on May 20, 1902, which itself followed centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Cuba's government does not consider the date ​to mark the country's independence day, arguing that it ‌remained subservient to Washington until the 1959 revolution.In a post on X, ​Diaz-Canel said that in Cuban history, May 20 signified "intervention, interference, dispossession, frustration."RUBIO OFFERS $100 MILLION IN ⁠AIDUnder Trump, the U.S. has effectively imposed a blockade on Cuba by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and exacerbating its worst crisis in decades.In a video message addressed to the Cuban people on Wednesday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents were Cuban immigrants to the United States, offered to forge a new relationship between the two countries. He said the U.S. could provide $100 million in aid, and blamed ​Cuba's leaders for shortages of electricity, food and fuel.In response, ⁠Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called Rubio "the mouthpiece of corrupt ⁠and vengeful interests" but did not rule out accepting the aid."He keeps talking about an aid package of 100 million dollars that Cuba has not rejected, but whose cynicism is evident to anyone in light of the devastating effect of the economic blockade and the energy stranglehold," Rodriguez wrote in a post on X.Cuba has yet to comment directly on the criminal case against Raul Castro.TRUMP HAS SAID CUBA 'IS NEXT'Born in 1931, Raul Castro ⁠was a key figure alongside his older brother in the guerrilla war that toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.He helped defeat the U.S.-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and served as defense minister for decades. He succeeded his brother as president in 2008 and stepped down in 2018, but remains a powerful behind-the-scenes figure in Cuban politics.He was defense minister at the time of the 1996 incident.The two small planes that were shot down were being flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a group of Miami-based Cuban exile pilots who said their mission was to search for Cuban rafters fleeing the island. All four men aboard were killed.The Cuban government has argued the strike was a legitimate response to the planes intruding on Cuban airspace. Fidel Castro said Cuba's military had acted on "standing orders" to ‌down planes entering Cuban airspace. He said Raul Castro did not give a specific order to shoot the planes.The U.S. condemned the attack and imposed sanctions, but did not pursue criminal charges against either Castro brother. The Justice Department charged three Cuban military officers in ​2003 but they were never extradited.The International Civil Aviation Organization later concluded the shootdown took place over international waters.The filing of the criminal case against a U.S. adversary like Castro recalls the earlier drug-trafficking indictment of imprisoned former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Havana's.The Trump administration cited that indictment as a justification for the January 3 raid on Caracas by the U.S. military in which Maduro was captured and brought to New York to face the charges. He has pleaded not guilty.Trump in March threatened that Cuba "is next" after Venezuela. Diaz-Canel said on Monday that any U.S. military action against Cuba would lead to a "bloodbath.")

MBABANE: Upon learning through the U.S. ​embassy that President Donald Trump was looking for African nations to take in deported third-country migrants, Eswatini was one of the first to volunteer despite questions over the legality ‌of the program.According to three senior ​government sources briefed on the matter, Prime Minister Russell Dlamini met then-Acting U.S. Charge d'Affaires Caitlin Piper in mid-February last year to discuss the matter in private.Dlamini took the proposal to King Mswati III, who marked 40 years on the throne of the mountainous southern African nation in April. Mswati listened and immediately agreed to host the deportees, two of the sources said, describing previously unreported closed-door talks.The speed of the agreement, under which 19 migrants have been detained in a prison south of the capital Mbabane so far, reflects how keen Eswatini was to keep its U.S. partner happy."The king embraced the deal as Eswatini's contribution to world order," King Mswati's spokesperson, Percy Simelane, told Reuters of the decision.The U.S. was ⁠Eswatini's largest single external donor in 2024, according to U.S. Official Development Assistance figures, with a large share of aid going towards HIV/AIDS programmes. The landlocked kingdom of 1.2 million people has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world.In return for hosting up to 160 deportees, Eswatini - where a third of the population live below the $2.15-a-day World Bank poverty line - was to be paid $5.1 million, according to a leaked copy of the deal seen by Reuters.LAWYERS CHALLENGE LEGALITY OF DEALHowever, the accord to take in the deportees from nations ranging ‌from Cuba and Jamaica to Cambodia and Laos has proved controversial, despite the extensive powers of the king, sparking unusual public protest. There were small yet rare protests in July outside the prison where the deportees reside. Two lawyers are challenging the deal's legality in local courts, saying it violates Eswatini's constitution in several ways.These include bypassing parliament and holding the deportees without charge - the constitution says they must be ‌released after 48 hours - refusing to grant them access to a lawyer and the fact they have committed no crime on Swazi soil."The ‌government of Swaziland (Eswatini) have put themselves in a mess that they don't know how to take themselves out of," the lawyer for the deportees, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, told Reuters."Swaziland (Eswatini) is ‌regarded as a golden boy in Africa," by the U.S., Nhlabatsi said. "I ‌think we found ourselves in the good books ... (and) wanted to stay there." After months of trying, Nhlabatsi won a court case on April 10 giving the detainees the right to counsel, but the prison authorities have yet to grant access, he said.Eswatini's correctional services ​head did not respond to a request for comment.OPERATION ‌KEPT HIGHLY SECRETA U.S. State Department spokesperson declined to ​answer specific questions, but said "we remain unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and ⁠mass immigration and bolster America's border security".In July last year, the first five deportees arrived. Successive waves have brought 19 so far, two of whom have been released and repatriated. According to the three government and three diplomatic sources, only the king, Queen Mother Ntfombi and Prime Minister Dlamini knew about the deal until the migrants touched down."Bringing USA deportees to Eswatini (concerned) security. It had to start where it ​started and the rest of the system structures were ⁠to learn of the decision later," said Simelane.Two ⁠of the diplomatic and one government source said when the $5.1 million arrived in state coffers, no one, including the finance minister, knew what it was for.Simelane declined to comment.Workers and visitors walk near the entrance to Matsapha Correctional Complex, a maximum-security prison known for holding high-profile detainees, near Manzini, Eswatini's second-largest city, April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Oupa Nkosi FAVOURABLE US TARIFFS AND HEALTHCARE DEALUnlike neighbouring South Africa, Eswatini has maintained good relations with the U.S. and the country received relatively generous terms under a health agreement signed with Washington in December, helping prop up a ⁠creaking healthcare system.Of 14 African countries that signed bilateral U.S. health deals in December to replace dismantled USAID, Eswatini got the highest per capita spend of $205 million. It also got tariffs of 10%, a third of those imposed on South Africa."The MOU had a significant impact," health portfolio committee head Nxumalo Somntongo told Reuters, referring to the December health deals. He said they had made financing more sustainable and supply chains more reliable.However, three sources, and Nxumalo, said they knew of no evidence that reinstating aid, or offering Eswatini favourable trade tariffs, was discussed as part of the deportee deal."To the best of our knowledge, no carrot, in the form of tariffs was dangled. Health aid was going on long ‌before the deal and could not have been bait," Simelane said.A general view of Matsapha Correctional Complex, a maximum-security prison known for holding high-profile detainees, near Manzini, Eswatini's second-largest city, April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Oupa Nkosi DIFFICULT CONDITIONSFor some detainees and relatives, it's been a nightmare. Pheap Rom from Cambodia, one of the two detainees to be released, panicked when he realised he was going to ​an African country rather than another U.S. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) facility."I was (so) scared, my knees were shaking," he told Reuters last month in Phnom Penh.The conditions in the prison in Eswatini were crowded, he said, with four people to a small cell.The long-term partner of another deportee still in Eswatini, Felix Perez, 64, described most of their phone conversations as being about fears he might die in jail owing to poor health."It's a thought I can't shake," the woman, who gave her name as Phyllis, told Reuters in a text message from her Louisiana home ​town. "To know he has to fight mosquitoes all night and can't get proper ‌care. I cry daily."