DeSantis joins call for Trump to indict Raul Castro

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How will Raul Castro's departure impact future US relations?

Maria Elvira Salazar, Florida congressional candidate, slams Miguel Diaz-Canel as a puppet of the Castros.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) is calling on President Donald Trump to impose more severe economic sanctions against the Cuban government and to indict Raul Castro, the island nation's former president who remains the top leader of Cuba's Communist Party.

DeSantis, who chairs the House Oversight Committee's national security panel, this week expressed deep concern about the Cuban government's record of oppressing its people, murdering Americans, and working with some of the world's worst actors, including Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela, to undermine U.S. interests.

During a Wednesday hearing, DeSantis decried the Obama administration's decision to release three men convicted for their roles in connection with the illegal shoot down in 1996 of two American civilian aircraft that killed three Americans and a U.S. legal resident.

Instead of releasing the men responsible to return to Cuba to receive "a hero's welcome," the U.S. government should be calling for more accountability from Cuba for the murder of the Americans, not less.

"Why not indict Raul Castro for his role?" DeSantis asked. "I think that if the Trump administration moved forward with a series of indictments that would send a very strong signal that it does mean business and it will take care of some of these issues that have been lingering for a long time."

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