Analysis: Why Castro’s indictment could lead to war between the US and Cuba | CNN

It’s an indictment that could doom any lingering chance of a deal to avoid armed conflict between the United States and Cuba. The federal charges against former Cuban leader Raul Castro regarding the downing of a civilian plane in 1996 fired up the Cuban exile community in Miami, where the indictment was announced Wednesday – the same day the Cuban diaspora celebrate their independence from Spain. Seeing an increasingly weakened government in Havana, anti-Castro exiles have advocated against any accommodation with Havana that leaves Cuban government officials in power. But for Cubans on the island who support the revolution, there is little chance that Castro is going anywhere, much less a Miami court room. “He is the living embodiment of the revolution,” former US diplomat Ricardo Zúñiga told CNN of Castro. Why Raul Castro could be indicted over Cuba’s shootdown of a plane carrying Americans Zúñiga was part of the secret negotiating team that struck a deal with Cuban officials, including Raul Castro’s son, to restore diplomatic ties during the Obama administration. Indicting Castro as a way to pressure the Cuban government into a deal may well backfire, Zúñiga sa