Blanche Asked: What Are The Prospects That You Could Get Raul Castro To The US To Face Justice?

Añadido: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00][applause] [applause] [applause] >> Good morning. It's an honor to be here and support Attorney General Branch, Senator Moody, and your great United States Attorney Jason Reading Canales.

[00:00:31]Communist revolution always begins with the same utopian lie.

[00:00:37]A classless, stateless paradise of abundance and freedom.

[00:00:43]But we know the reality.

[00:00:45]In reality, there is no abundance, nor freedom.

[00:00:49]Rather, it obstructs individual personal property rights, suffocates merit, and centralizes total power in the hands of tyrants.

[00:01:06]We've seen what communism has brought us.

[00:01:09]Over 100 million people that have lost their lives, engineered famines, and the total destruction of human liberty.

[00:01:22]Just 90 miles from our Florida shore lines, the Castro family has ruled the island with an iron fist.

[00:01:30]For nearly 50 years, Raul Castro directed the armed forces and served as chief enforcer.

[00:01:39]The very man who traded the promise of revolution for a prison state.

[00:01:46]And under his command and to this day, Cuba remains a dungeon.

[00:01:52]Political dissidents are ripped from their homes at night under fabricated charges.

[00:01:58]They're dragged through the streets, beaten, and imprisoned for decades.

[00:02:05]I know this pain is all too real for many of you in this room.

[00:02:10]The people have long suffered because of that communist regime.

[00:02:16]And today that hits very close to home here in the Freedom Tower with the Brothers to the rescue.

[00:02:24]Raul Castro ordered those fighter jets to shoot down unarmed civilian aircraft.

[00:02:32]It was not an accident.

[00:02:34]It was intentional, premeditated, state-sanctioned murder.

[00:02:41]And their criminal conspiracy violated Florida's [snorts] sovereignty.

[00:02:46]They embedded spies here in Miami and across jurisdictions down into the Florida Keys, revealing the intelligence that would put these civilian aircraft in the crosshairs.

[00:03:00]And yet for too long leaders in Washington looked the other way.

[00:03:05]They sat by idly.

[00:03:07]They even attended baseball games with the very man that directed the murders.

[00:03:14]Not anymore.

[00:03:15]We are blessed to have a president Donald J. Trump.

[00:03:19]>> [applause] [applause] [applause] >> We are blessed to have a president in Donald J. Trump who will not bend the knee for communist tyrants.

[00:03:38]>> [applause] [applause] >> And we are blessed to have Attorney General Blanche and your United States Attorney that advance justice and rule of law, and who are not going to politically weaponize government.

[00:03:56]>> [applause] [applause] >> It's an honor to support them in this endeavor.

[00:04:05]Uh last year, right after I took office, I directed our prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the Castros and these murders. Working hand in hand with the US attorney and supporting his team, we are today one step closer to advancing justice.

[00:04:25]>> [applause] >> And the cooperation between the United States and state of Florida could not be more critical than today. Americans deserve justice. Floridians deserve justice. The family members of these men that lost their lives, they deserve justice.

[00:04:50]Now, going forward, let me be crystal clear.

[00:04:55]There can be no future for a free Cuba so long as the Castros and their criminal gang of thugs remain in power.

[00:05:03]>> [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> We now have the leaders that will pursue that which is right and just. That I know. So, get ready. There's more to come. God bless America and God bless the free state of Florida.

[00:05:43]>> [applause] [applause] >> So, we're going to just take a couple questions, although the questions should be directed to uh the reason why we're here today and not something else. So, are there are there reporters in uh Pierre?

[00:06:06]Attorney General Blanche, uh key question, why now? Was there a breakthrough in this case? Can you speak to the evidence that leads you to believe that Raul Castro directly participated in the deaths of those Americans who were killed? And I have a follow-up. Well, I cannot explain or justify why now as opposed to two decades ago or 30 years ago when it happened. But, what I can say is that you just heard a lot of people talk about a ton of work that the FBI did, state and local intelligence communities, our US attorney and and and the Attorney General's the state attorney general's team, and that evidence was presented to a grand jury um in late April and an indictment was returned. So, I can't as far as what the evidence is, well, a lot of it's in the indictment and it would not be appropriate or fair to comment outside of the indictment about the evidence.

[00:07:01]But, as as you guys know, a grand jury is presented with evidence and and and then returns an indictment to the extent that that they believe there's probable cause that a crime has been committed, which a grand jury certainly did here.

[00:07:12]And quick follow-up. What are the prospects that you could get Raul Castro to the United States to face justice uh given the situation there uh and what steps steps are the US willing to take to get him back here?

[00:07:26]Well, we we indict men outside of this country all the time.

[00:07:32]And there's all kinds of different ways that we get them here. The reason why we indict somebody is cuz we want them here to face justice in front of a jury of their peers. So, >> [applause] [applause] >> How we go about doing that obviously depends on the circumstances in the case and I'm not going to go beyond that, but but we we expect we didn't indict this isn't a show indictment. This is an indictment because we we expect that there was a warrant issued for his arrest. So, um we expect that that he will show up here um by his own will or by another way and go to prison.

[00:08:15]>> [applause] >> Uh next question.

[00:08:20]Yep.