SX Blog

On Wednesday, 20 May 2026, US Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against Raúl Castro, former president of Cuba. The indictment accuses the 94 year old (and a number of others) of ordering the shoot-down in February 1996 of two civilian planes operated by the Miami-based group, Brothers to the Rescue. Castro was the Minister of Defense at the time. Now, whatever the purported legal standing is of this action, no one is in any doubt that the United States government has hit upon a saleable rationale for invading Cuba in order to kidnap Castro and topple the regime of current president Miguel Díaz-Canel. We can now see more clearly the reasons for the US imposition of an inhumane oil blockade on the island-state since the beginning of the year: to weaken the resolve of the Cuban people to resist, to increase the likelihood that the American forces will be welcomed as saviors. Unable to score decisively in its illegal war on Iran, the US government believes it can secure a cheap victory against Cuba. We in the Small Axe Project condemn this groundswell of aggression, an expression of barbarism and evil. Will Iran issue criminal charges against US president Donald Trump for the wholesale slaughter of 168 people, including more than 100 children, in the missile attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran, on 28 February 2026, that Amnesty International has now determined was carried out by the US? And what if it does, since the US believes itself answerable to no law but its own. As Caribbean people we have a real challenge before us: either we submit supinely to these threats and transgressions of our sovereignty and dignity, or we stand up for our right to determine our collective futures.