Former Cuban leader Raúl Castro made his first public appearance Friday since the Trump administration charged him with murder over the 1996 shoot-down of planes operated by a Cuban exile group.

Castro appeared on state television during an Interior Ministry celebration in Havana, according to Reuters.

The appearance came weeks after the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment accusing Castro of playing a role in the downing of two aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile organization Brothers to the Rescue nearly 30 years ago.

Castro was charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder.

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Castro, who turned 95 on Wednesday, was last seen publicly during May Day celebrations in Havana, days before the indictment was unsealed.

Prior to his May Day appearance, Castro had remained out of public view for months, appearing only at a public ceremony in Cuba's capital in January honoring 32 Cuban soldiers killed during the U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The indictment centers on a February 1996 incident in which Cuban military aircraft allegedly shot down two unarmed civilian planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, killing four men: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.

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Prosecutors allege the aircraft were flying outside Cuban territory when they were destroyed.

The indictment came amid rising tensions in the Caribbean and a series of comments from Trump and his surrogates hinting at possible regime change in the island nation.

President Donald Trump previously praised the indictment, saying Cuban Americans whose families suffered under the communist regime had waited decades for accountability.

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"We have big news on Cuba, as you know, with the indictment of Castro," Trump said. "A lot of people have suffered very big, very, very, at levels that few people would understand."

Trump also suggested tensions with Cuba would not escalate following the indictment.

"There won’t be escalation," he said. "We won’t have to."

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Still, the decision to indict Castro fueled comparisons to the pressure campaign Trump previously used against Maduro.

"At the very least, it means symbolically that he is now set up just as Nicolás Maduro was," Christine Balling, a Cuba expert at the Institute of World Politics and former advisor to U.S. Special Operations Command South, previously told Fox News Digital.

The U.S. indicted Maduro on narco-terrorism charges while tightening sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector, backing opposition efforts to remove him from power and increasing military operations in the Caribbean.

"I don't think that we are necessarily going to conduct the same operation," Balling said. "Raúl Castro is 94 years old. It might not be worth the trouble."

Still, Balling argued that the indictment sent "a very straightforward message that we are 100% behind the fall of the Castro regime."

Fox News Digital's Robert McGreevy, Greg Wehner and Morgan Phillips, along with Fox News' David Spunt, Bill Mears and Jake Gibson contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed to this report.

A close ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been deported by Venezuela to the United States, according to Venezuelan officials, to face federal charges accusing him of orchestrating a sweeping money laundering and bribery scheme tied to Venezuela’s state-run food program and oil industry.

Alex Nain Saab Moran, 55, of Colombia, a former minister of industry and national production under the Maduro regime, appeared in federal court in Miami Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The Justice Department said Saab is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Prosecutors allege Saab led a yearslong scheme beginning around 2015 to defraud a humanitarian program intended to provide food to impoverished Venezuelans.

He and his co-conspirators later allegedly sold billions of dollars’ worth of Venezuelan state-owned oil while circumventing U.S. sanctions, according to the Justice Department. Authorities say the proceeds were routed through U.S. bank accounts in an effort to conceal the transactions and further advance the scheme.

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"Alex Saab allegedly used American banks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from a Venezuelan food program meant for the poor and proceeds from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a statement. "This is unacceptable. The Criminal Division will not allow foreign actors to exploit the American financial system and use it as a safe haven for the proceeds of their corruption." 

Beginning around 2015, Saab and his associates allegedly paid bribes to Venezuelan government officials to secure contracts tied to the country’s CLAP welfare program, which was intended to purchase and distribute food to vulnerable and impoverished Venezuelans. 

Instead of delivering the promised food supplies, prosecutors allege the group used shell companies, fraudulent invoices and falsified shipping records to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from the program for their own personal gain.

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Around 2019, as sweeping U.S. sanctions crippled Venezuela’s oil exports and placed severe strain on the country’s finances, including its ability to pay Saab and his associates under the CLAP program, Saab and his partners allegedly exploited their corrupt ties to government officials to gain access to billions of dollars’ worth of oil owned by Venezuela’s state-run oil company. 

Officials allege the group sold the oil under false pretenses and used the profits to sustain and expand the original food fraud scheme.

Saab and his associates reportedly laundered the allegedly stolen funds through U.S. bank accounts in an effort to conceal the money trail, giving American authorities jurisdiction to prosecute the case.

"When illicit proceeds are moved through the United States financial system, our courts have jurisdiction and our prosecutors will act," U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement.

Saab was previously indicted in the U.S. in 2019 and extradited from Cabo Verde in 2021. He was pardoned by President Biden in 2023 as part of a prisoner swap, though prosecutors say the new case involves alleged conduct not covered by that pardon.

A Miami-based attorney for Saab declined to comment to The Associated Press.

If convicted, Saab faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The government is also seeking forfeiture of any property or proceeds allegedly obtained through the alleged criminal activity.

The case was investigated by a U.S. Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).