Former President Bill Clinton has jumped into the midterm fray, stumping for Democrat David Jolly in his race against Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds in the bid to replace outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Relatives of gravely ill detainees at two Floridaimmigration jails say authorities are about to deport their loved ones to unknown countries in Africa despite worsening medical conditions.
Flights are scheduled as early as Wednesday, according to the families and the immigration advocacy group the Workers Circle, which has been monitoring conditions and speaking with detainees inside two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in south Florida.
Gli Stati Uniti di Donald Trump non risparmiano più l’uomo a terra, hors de combat (fuori combattimento), ignorando ogni riferimento al diritto internazionale umanitario. E vale tutto – anche accanirsi contro un Paese in crisi umanitaria e un ex presidente 95enne – pur di recuperare qualche punto nei sondaggi che sono ai minimi storici (31%), a ridosso delle elezioni di midterm. Lo conferma il tempismo del mandato di cattura annunciato lunedì contro l’ex presidente cubano Raúl Castro, fratello del leader della rivoluzione Fidel, accusato di “cospirazione finalizzata a omicidio in primo grado” per l’abbattimento di due velivoli pilotali dall’organizzazione Brothers to the rescue/Hermanos al rescate avvenuto più di trent’anni fa, il 24 febbraio 1996. In quell’incidente sono morti tre cittadini americani e un residente Usa: Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales , Mario de la Peña e Armando Alejandre Jr. Secondo le indagini dell’Organizzazione dell’aviazione civile internazionale, l’attacco del 1996 si sarebbe verificato in acque internazionali, ma L’Avana sostiene di aver agito in “legittima difesa” e “all’interno delle proprie acque giurisdizionali”.
“Raúl Castro (allora vicepresidente del Consiglio di Stato e ministro delle Forze armate rivoluzionarie, ndr) ha ordinato l’uccisione di quattro concittadini a sangue freddo e la Florida non smetterà mai di cercare giustizia”, ha commentato in conferenza stampa il procuratore generale in carica dello Stato americano, James Uthmeier, conservatore, affiliato al Partito Repubblicano, già promotore della creazione del centro di detenzione “Alligator Alcatraz” e in corsa verso il secondo mandato. “L’ordine d’arresto – ha aggiunto – limiterà la capacità di Castro di lasciare la nazione insulare e gli impedirà di viaggiare in qualsiasi luogo che abbia un accordo di estradizione con gli Stati Uniti”. Il procuratore dice di tener conto dell’anzianità di Castro ma confida che eventuali catture e trasferimenti a Miami avvengano per conto di “altri” soggetti.
Allo stesso tempo, fonti de L’Avana esprimono perplessità a Ilfattoquotidiano.it sul carattere extraterritoriale del mandato di cattura, i cui margini interpretativi potrebbero allargarsi addirittura a un’operazione di estrazione nell’Isola, sulla falsariga di quanto avvenuto il 3 gennaio, a Caracas, durante il blitz della Cia contro Nicolás Maduro e Cilia Flores. Uthmeier prova a blindare anche l’eventuale prigionia di Castro avvertendo: “Se un simpatizzante del comunismo (cioè, un candidato Dem, ndr) dovesse tornare a occupare la Casa Bianca, non potrà dargli l’indulto, commutargli la pena né concedergli l’immunità di fronte a questi procedimenti statali”.
Immediata la reazione del suo sfidante alla carica di procuratore, José Javier Rodríguez, che contesta tempi e modi dell’annuncio: “Utilizzare una tragedia dolorosa e mai dimenticata per la comunità di Miami al solo scopo di mettere in scena uno show politico a ridosso delle elezioni dimostra come l’ufficio del Procuratore generale venga usato come uno strumento di campagna elettorale, invece che per amministrare una giustizia seria”. E, almeno a livello emotivo, il provvedimento fa breccia tra gli esuli cubani, compresi i familiari delle vittime, riuniti alla Freedom Tower di Miami. Per Mirta Méndez, madre del pilota Carlos Alberto Costa, “vedere lo Stato della Florida e le autorità muoversi insieme per inchiodare il regime cubano alle sue responsabilità cancella, almeno in parte, il senso di abbandono che abbiamo provato per decenni”. Ma tra gli stessi esuli anti-Castro non manca lo scetticismo. “Come lo arresteranno, se è protetto da un esercito? Questa sembra più propaganda che giustizia reale per le famiglie”, commenta Camilo López, residente a Little Havana.
In fondo, il tentativo dell’amministrazione Trump è quello di recuperare i consensi perduti in una fetta dell’elettorato latino, con il 74% dei membri che disapprova le sue politiche mentre il 55% dichiara esplicitamente che gli voterà “contro”, secondo una recente rilevazione a cura del Pew Research Center.
L’atto di propaganda viene denunciato anche dal presidente cubano, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, che su X reputa “spregevole” il mandato di cattura contro Raúl Castro, definendolo un “patetico circo a sfondo elettorale” che “non avrà mai il minimo senso giuridico e tantomeno pratico”. Il presidente condanna quindi la “manovra con veste legale montata da politici anti cubani contro Castro e contro Cuba”.
Nel frattempo, a L’Avana la vita reale è sempre dura da affrontare: quest’anno il Pil subirà una contrazione del 10,3%, la peggiore in tutto l’emisfero, mentre zone come Pinar del Río affrontano blackout che raggiungono anche le 90 ore. La produzione interna è ferma, causa blocco ed embargo, mentre le importazioni dagli Usa salgono del 210% rispetto all’anno precedente. Tutto concorre, anche le merci, all’occupazione dell’Isola.
A 77-year-old Florida man was executed on Tuesday for killing a sheriff's deputy more than 40 years ago, marking the Sunshine State's 18th execution of the year as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis continues an accelerated pace of executions.
William Reaves was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke following a three-drug injection. He was convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the September 1986 shooting death of Indian River County sheriff's deputy Richard Raczkoski.
Reaves said he did not have any last words.
About 30 seconds after the injection began, Reaves took several big breaths and then stopped moving. A few minutes later, the team warden shook Reaves’ shoulders and shouted his name, but the man gave no response. A medic checked for a heartbeat or other signs of life, and Reaves was pronounced dead about a minute later.
Raczkoski's brother, Marc, told reporters after witnessing the execution that his brother finally received justice, while Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said that he viewed the execution as closure rather than justice.
"Would we all be so lucky to be 77 years old and to die so peacefully," Flowers said at a press conference. "That’s not justice in any way, in my opinion."
On Sept. 23, 1986, Raczkoski responded to a 911 call that Reaves had made from a payphone at a Vero Beach convenience store, according to court records.
After the deputy arrived at the scene and the two men began talking, a gun fell out of Reaves’ pants, officials said. The two men struggled over the weapon before Reaves eventually regained control of it.
Raczkoski was attempting to run away when Reaves shot him four times, according to investigators. He died from his wounds later that day.
Reaves was convicted and sentenced to death about a year after the shooting. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned the conviction due to a conflict of interest with the prosecutor and ordered a new trial. After the second trial, Reaves was again convicted and sentenced to death, and subsequent appeals were unsuccessful.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Reaves’ request for a stay of execution and petition asking the court to review his case without comment on Tuesday.
The state Supreme Court also rejected Reaves’ appeals last week that sought to halt the execution.
His attorneys challenged Florida’s three-drug lethal injection protocol. Executions in the state are carried out through the injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections. The court has previously upheld the protocol against similar challenges.
Florida's method is different from the single-drug injection used in states like Tennessee, where death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was rushed to the hospital last month. Pike has since been released from the hospital and returned to prison.
Reaves' attorneys also argued that jurors who recommended the death penalty were never made aware that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had rated the Army veteran as 100% disabled because of post-traumatic stress disorder linked to his service in the Vietnam War.
More than 100 military veterans appealed to DeSantis in a letter on Monday to halt the execution, pointing to those factors.
Reaves was the eighth Florida prisoner over age 70 put to death this year.
Florida has accelerated its pace of executions amid a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis since 2025. The governor oversaw a state record 19 executions last year, more than any other Florida governor in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, accounting for approximately 40% of the U.S. total of 47 executions for 2025.
Florida would tie last year's record if Jesse Guardado, 64, is put to death as scheduled on Nov. 5 for robbing and killing a woman to buy drugs in 2004.
Florida has carried out more than half of the 32 total executions in the country so far this year, including Reaves.
In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first time a state has done so in nearly a decade.
DeSantis has said he wants justice for victims’ families who have often waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.
Last year, Florida set a state record with 19 executions in a year, and it's poised to tie that mark if another execution is carried out next month as scheduled.
Vietnam veteran William Reaves executed by lethal injection despite letter from fellow veterans urging halt
Florida carried out its 18th execution of the year on Tuesday under Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive use of the death penalty in his final term.
William Reaves, 77, was pronounced dead at 6.12pm following a three-drug injection at Florida state prison near Starke. He was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1986 shooting death of Indian River county deputy Richard Raczkowski.
A convicted bank robber allegedly returned to a familiar disguise while robbing two Florida banks on supervised release, donning an "old man" mask and fleeing in a getaway vehicle tied to his earlier crimes, federal authorities said.
David Sartin Jr., 40, of St. Petersburg, faces two bank robbery charges after investigators say he targeted banks weeks apart while concealing his face behind a prosthetic mask with gray facial hair.
The allegations follow a sentence of more than 10 years in federal prison in a case involving five Texas bank robberies, during which Sartin wore a similar disguise, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The first holdup happened Aug. 24 at Valley Bank in Largo, where the suspect entered wearing a straw hat, sports jacket, gloves and a prosthetic face covering, according to investigators.
He approached a teller, demanded money and warned, "no dye packs," the complaint states.
Authorities say he escaped with $2,900, wedging a yellow wet-floor sign between the exit doors before fleeing toward a nearby church.
Surveillance video showed the suspect retrieving a bicycle, riding into a nature preserve and leaving the area in a Toyota FJ Cruiser, according to the affidavit.
Investigators traced the vehicle’s movements through video from surrounding businesses, city trucks, a police cruiser and a school bus. The Toyota was the same vehicle used in several of Sartin’s earlier Texas robberies, authorities said.
On Sept. 15, a similarly disguised suspect entered a Truist Bank in St. Petersburg wearing a flat cap, glasses, a sports jacket and an "old man" mask with a gray mustache and whiskers.
By then, the FBI was monitoring Sartin’s home with a surveillance camera. Video captured the Toyota leaving before the second robbery and returning afterward, when a man resembling Sartin unloaded a bicycle, according to the affidavit.
The following evening, investigators watched Sartin change the vehicle’s appearance. Investigators said he spray-painted the vehicle’s white roof black.
Sartin was arrested Sept. 19 on a warrant for violating his supervised release. Searches uncovered a bicycle and clothing similar to those seen in the robbery video, authorities said.
Agents searching his storage unit found an "old man" mask they said matched the disguise worn during both robberies, along with glasses, clothing and a fake handgun.
In a guest room where Sartin occasionally stayed, investigators also found another mask and a journal identifying him as its author. Its title page included the words, "God’s Best friend is a Bank Robber!" according to the complaint.
Sartin’s previous convictions stretch back nearly two decades. He was convicted of attempted bank robbery in Mississippi in 2008 following a failed holdup involving Halloween masks and disguises.
In 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison in the Texas bank robbery case.
He now faces up to 20 years in prison on each new robbery count if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
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