Raul Castro warrant draws condemnation from China and Cuba

Beijing on Wednesday attacked a Florida arrest warrant for Raul Castro, the former Cuban president, and called the case an abuse of judicial measures.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning spoke at a regular briefing. She said her government firmly backs Havana as it guards its sovereignty and resists outside interference.

Cuba’s leaders had already condemned the move on Monday, when Florida first announced the warrant against Raul Castro. Beijing’s statement shows that the dispute now reaches well beyond the island and the United States.

What Florida accuses Raul Castro of

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the state obtained a warrant against Castro for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Prosecutors tie the charge to the downing of two civilian planes on February 24, 1996.

Those aircraft belonged to Brothers to the Rescue, a group based in Miami that assisted Cubans who fled by sea. Four people died. Castro, now 95, ran Cuba’s armed forces when the planes went down.

Havana says the incident happened in Cuban airspace and amounted to self-defense. Federal prosecutors had also indicted Castro in May over the same events. He governed Cuba from 2008 to 2018, and the state charge now adds to the federal case that prosecutors opened five months earlier.

How Beijing answered on Raul Castro

Mao called Raul Castro a “highly respected leader” with great prestige worldwide, and she used the phrase “Comrade Raul.” Moreover, she urged Washington to end “all forms of coercion and pressure against Cuba.”

She also asked the United States to drop its blockade and other coercive steps immediately. In her words, such measures infringe on the right of Cubans to survive and develop.

Mao pointed out that Cuba’s president and foreign minister had called the US move a “despicable political farce.”

Havana’s reaction

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X that the warrant has no legal sense, and he mocked the case as a “pathetic Miami circus” with an electoral backdrop. In his view, it shows how hard Washington finds it to justify the blockade, which he described as collective punishment.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez branded the warrant a sterile maneuver by anti-Cuban politicians in South Florida. He accused them of using such moves to keep donations flowing. Diaz-Canel added that anti-Cuban politicians orchestrated the case against Raul and against Cuba itself, wrapping a political ploy in legal language.

Wider tension between Washington and Havana

Relations soured at the start of 2026. US forces then seized Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan leader and a key friend of Havana. Meanwhile, Cuba struggles under a US energy blockade, and the Trump administration keeps adding economic, political and legal pressure.

China maintains close ties with Cuba. Back in May, during talks in New York, Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised Cuba’s foreign minister his support against what he called power politics and bullying.

For now, the Raul Castro case adds a legal front to a wider dispute, and Beijing has said plainly which side it takes while Havana calls for the blockade to end.