HAVANA, October 19. /TASS/. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has slammed the issuance of an arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raul Castro in the United States as a pathetic, election-driven circus.

"The actions taken against the army general - this pathetic, election-driven circus in Miami -have no legal basis and never will," he wrote on his X page. "This maneuver, cloaked in a pseudo-legal form by anti-Cuban politicians and directed against Raul and Cuba, <...> is part of an aggressive agenda and is driven by the difficulties its initiators face as they try to justify the blockade and the collective punishment of our people."

Earlier on Monday, a court in the US state of Florida has issued an arrest warrant for 95-year-old former Cuban leader Raul Castro. In May, US authorities brought charges against Army General Raul Castro, one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution. He faces four counts of murder, two counts of destroying an aircraft, and conspiracy to murder US citizens. Five other people are also named as defendants in the case. CBS News reported that the charges may be related to a 1996 incident in which the Cuban Air Force shot down two planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile organization. The network noted that prosecutors in Florida reopened the investigation into the case earlier in 2026.