By Luc Cohen
May 20 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is expected to announce criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro on Wednesday, in a move that would mark a step-up in Washington's pressure campaign against the Caribbean island's communist government.
The charges against Castro, 94, are expected to be based on a 1996 incident in which Cuban jets shot down planes operated by a group of Cuban exiles, a U.S. Justice Department official told Reuters last week on the condition
of anonymity.
The Miami U.S. Attorney's office is planning to host an event starting at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) to honor victims of the incident. The Justice Department said on Tuesday it would make an announcement in conjunction with the ceremony, but did not provide details about the announcement.
President Donald Trump has been seeking regime change in Cuba, where communists have been in charge since Raul Castro's late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
The U.S. has effectively imposed a blockade on the island by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and delivering blows to its already fragile economy.
Cuba has yet to comment directly on the threat of indictment though Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed defiance in public comments on May 15.
"Despite the (U.S.) embargo, sanctions and threats of the use of force, Cuba continues on a path of sovereignty towards its socialist development," Rodriguez said.
BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE
Born in 1931, Raul Castro was a key figure alongside his older brother in the guerrilla war that toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
He helped defeat the U.S.-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and served as defense minister for decades. He succeeded his brother as president and remains a powerful behind-the-scenes figure in Cuban politics.
He was defense minister at the time of the 1996 incident.
The two small planes that were shot down were being flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a group of Miami-based Cuban exile pilots. All four men aboard were killed.
The group said its mission was to search the Florida Straits for Cuban rafters fleeing the island, and routinely flew near the Cuban coast.
The Cuban government has argued the strike was a legitimate response to the planes intruding on Cuban airspace. Fidel Castro said Cuba's military had acted on "standing orders" to down planes entering Cuban airspace. He said Raul Castro did not give a specific order to shoot the planes.
The U.S. condemned the attack and imposed sanctions, but did not pursue criminal charges against either Castro brother. The Justice Department charged three Cuban military officers in 2003 but they were never extradited.
The International Civil Aviation Organization later concluded the shootdown took place over international waters.
TRUMP SAYS CUBA 'IS NEXT'
The filing of a criminal case against a U.S. adversary like Castro would recall the earlier drug-trafficking indictment of imprisoned former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Havana's.
The Trump administration cited that indictment as a justification for the January 3 raid on Caracas by the U.S. military in which Maduro was captured and brought to New York to face the charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Trump says Cuba's communist government is corrupt, and in March threatened that Cuba "is next" after Venezuela.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that any U.S. military action against Cuba would lead to a "bloodbath" and that the island does not represent a threat.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Rosalba O'Brien)
