Thousands of Cubans gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Havana on Friday to protest a U.S. decision to indict former president Raúl Castro over the 1996 downing of two civilian airplanes.
The pro-government rally began shortly after sunrise along Havana’s waterfront. Castro, 94, was not present.
Cuban lawmaker Gerardo Hernández, a national hero and former spy, delivered a message thanking Cubans and international supporters for their solidarity. He quoted Castro as saying, “As long as I live, I will remain at the forefront of the Revolution, with one foot in the stirrup.”
Demonstrators waved flags and chanted “Viva Raúl!” and “Patria o Muerte” during the nearly hour-long rally.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero attended, along with several members of Castro’s family, including daughter Mariela Castro, son Alejandro Castro, and grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro.
Rodríguez Castro, known as “Raulito” or “El Cangrejo,” often serves as his grandfather’s bodyguard. He met last week with CIA Director John Ratcliffe during a rare visit to Havana by a U.S. spy chief.
Mariela Castro told state media after the protest that her father was “doing very well, very calm, like an old guerrilla fighter; he observes and smiles. He always said: ‘No one takes me alive; they’ll catch me fighting.’”
Cuba called the indictment, announced Wednesday, “spurious” and said it was intended as a pretext for an invasion as the Trump administration seeks to pressure the Cuban government.
The U.S. indictment relates to Cuba’s 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft operated by Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, which killed four people, including three Americans.
