Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to news that the U.S. Department of Justice was pushing to indict Cuba’s former leader Raúl Castro, calling the move “long overdue” on Friday.
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The Justice Department is seeking to indict 94-year-old Raul Castro, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. One of the officials says the criminal action is over two civilian planes flown by Brother to the Rescue on a volunteer mission that were downed by Cuba in 1996. Four Cuban Americans were killed.
At a news conference at Miami-Dade College in downtown Miami, the governor signed HB 757, legislation that would expand the school guardian program with the goal of improving campus safety.
At the end, the governor also took questions about Cuba.
“[Raúl Castro] should be indicted, and he should be held accountable,” DeSantis said. “And the Cuban regime is outdated as well.”
The governor’s comments also come after CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials in Havana.
Cuba faces an energy crisis after the U.S. military in January arrested the president of Venezuela, a country that was a key Cuban ally and source of oil. The CIA official said Ratcliffe was there “to personally deliver President Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”
DeSantis pointed to the Cuban exile community in South Florida, saying that “they would not have been able to succeed” on the island.
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“They would be poor, they would probably be ignorant, they would not have any opportunities because of the repressive regime, so the only way Cuba is going to get better is to end communism in Cuba, end the Castro dictatorship,” he said.
The governor went on to discuss a frustrated effort to help provide internet access to the island during uprisings in 2021.
“I was willing to do that with our emergency funds, because I thought it was a once in a generation opportunity to bring about the type of change. It’s got to be bottom up, you know,” he said. “Us coming in is not—it’s got to be bottom up.”
DeSantis said he hoped “we see free Cuba.”
“What I don’t think works is to say, okay, the communist government, they’re going to make some accommodations, do some business here… ultimately, they will take that money for themselves. So, as long as they’re in power, you don’t have a pathway, I think, to have true reform on that island,” he said.
Change, he said, could lead to a “really, really strong economy.”
“We know these different islands around our peninsula, and I’m not saying anything negative about any of the other ones, because there’s nice places Floridians go, they fish in the Bahamas, they do all that,” he said. “Cuba would be the number one draw, no question.”
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