Cuba condemns U.S. arrest warrant for Raul Castro

HAVANA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's government on Monday condemned an arrest warrant issued by the U.S. state of Florida for former Cuban President Raul Castro, calling it a senseless legal ploy linked to Washington's blockade of the island.

"This reprehensible action against the Army General this morning in a pathetic Miami circus, with an electoral backdrop, has no, nor will it ever have, the slightest legal sense and even less practical sense," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a post on social media platform X.

The arrest warrant is a political ploy in legal guise orchestrated by anti-Cuban politicians against Raul and against Cuba, said Diaz-Canel.

He added that the measure "reflects the difficulties they (the United States) face in trying to justify the blockade and the collective punishment of our people."

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also condemned the move in a post on X, calling it a "new sterile maneuver by the anti-Cuban politicians of South Florida against Army General Raul Castro Ruz, which they have combined with other hackneyed and baseless accusations against Cuba."

Rodriguez said the measure only reflected "the political rot and moral collapse of a group of parasites who deceive and swindle their followers, keeping them contributing through fundraising and financial support."

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday announced that state authorities had secured an arrest warrant for Cuban Revolution leader Raul Castro on a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft.

Castro, 95, was Cuba's minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces at the time of the shootdown, which Havana says took place in Cuban airspace and in self-defense.