In an official statement released on May 21, 2026 — marked as the “Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz” — Cuba’s Council of State, acting on behalf of the National Assembly of People’s Power, issued a fierce condemnation of what it calls a politically motivated, outrageous accusation brought by the United States Department of Justice against Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, the iconic leader of the Cuban Revolution.
The body fully backs the Revolutionary Government’s official declaration rejecting this unlawful and contemptible action, which Cuban authorities frame as a transparent case of political manipulation that deliberately twists historical facts surrounding the 1996 downing of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft over Cuban territorial airspace. The Miami-based group has long been classified as a terrorist organization by the Cuban government.
Members of the Council of State further denounce that the U.S. federal government is weaponizing its legal system to advance a long-standing policy of aggression targeting the Cuban Revolution. This tactic, they argue, openly flouts core principles of international law and constitutes a deliberate violation of Cuba’s national sovereignty and national dignity.
Alongside the condemnation of the accusations against Castro, the Council issued an unqualified rejection of unilateral executive orders from the U.S. President and other coercive policies first introduced during the Trump administration, including a string of recent false, unethical allegations targeting senior Cuban state and government leaders. Cuban officials argue these moves serve a deliberate, harmful goal: to tighten the decades-old illegal U.S. blockade and escalate pressure meant to suffocate the island nation’s resilient population.
The statement concludes with a defiant assertion that the U.S. executive branch’s anti-Cuban rhetoric of hatred and aggression will once again fail, overcome by the unshakable commitment of the Cuban people to defend their hard-won independence. “The Homeland and its Socialist Revolution will be defended. Always onward to victory!” the declaration reads, closing with a clear message: “Cuba wants peace!”