MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This week, the Justice Department indicted Cuba's former president Raúl Castro over the downing of two civilian American planes back in 1996. Well, that is one of several recent developments raising questions about the possibility of U.S. military action as the U.S. steps up pressure for regime change on the Caribbean island. Will Grant is the BBC's Mexico, Central America and Cuba correspondent, and he is on the line from Havana. Will Grant, welcome.
WILL GRANT: It's lovely to be with you.
KELLY: Start with the headline. How are people there in Cuba responding to this indictment of Raúl Castro?
GRANT: Well, over the course of today, there has been a pro-Raúl Castro rally outside the U.S. embassy in Havana. State-organized, as you can imagine - state workers, students, supporters of the Revolution were out in force and the voices you're going to hear there will always be ones that basically back the revolution, back the top leadership.
And in fact, one of those I spoke to was Gerardo Hernandez, who was the head of a spy ring, which had infiltrated the very group that was shot down, the Brothers to the Rescue. He said the very fact that he did that was because of the fact that Cuba had considered the group to be a terrorist organization, had been working towards destabilizing the government in Havana, and that all of the charges against Raúl Castro were essentially politically motivated, nothing more than a pretext for military action. So that's basically at the heart of what people are saying on theground.
KELLY: May I just ask - you've reported from Cuba for years. How free are people to speak their mind? Can they tell you, a foreign correspondent, what they actually think about their government?
GRANT: Certainly more free than they used to be, I think. There is a sense in which people are now more confident to speak their mind because they are more angry about the situation. Nevertheless, of course, criticizing the Castro family is another step, and I found a lot of people who were perhaps saying more negative things wanted to withhold their name.
KELLY: Well, I wanted to have that context before I ask this next question, which is, how on edge are people, where you are in Havana, that Cuba could be the next Venezuela? - where, of course, precedent was set earlier this year. The U.S. indicted a political leader, Nicolás Maduro, in the case of Venezuela. And then the U.S. swooped in, arrested him, and took him to the U.S.
GRANT: Right. Exactly. And I think that is the mood music to the whole thing, is that people are already on edge. Of course they're on edge. There have been now five towards six months without fuel coming in, very very limited amounts of crude oil making it to the island. They're exhausted, some sleeping just a couple of hours a night because of the - temperatures are rising. They've got no air conditioning. They've got no fans to keep the mosquitoes at bay. So people are tired, people are frustrated, and people are worried.
And I think that combination is bad enough on its own. But when you look at the fact of what has happened this year, which involved the airstrikes on Caracas and the removal - the forced removal of Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela, then it all adds up to a very, very worrying time for ordinary Cubans.
KELLY: So what are Cubans telling you they want right now?
GRANT: I mean, first and foremost - and I've spoken to everybody from a elderly widow who's living on the 11th floor of a building who simply can't get up and down the stairs when the blackouts lead to no working elevator; to a young pregnant mother expecting her second child, not sure where she's going to - what condition she's going to find the hospital in when she gives birth, where she's going to find sufficient baby milk or nappies and so on.
But I think, first and foremost, they would like a peaceful and negotiated solution. Very few cars on the roads, very few people to - able to get to work as normal or as easily as they normally would, children having to be kept back from school, hospitals operating at a fraction of their capacity - you know, the list goes on and on and on, and it is very wearing for people. And for that, they blame, I think, as much Washington as they do their own government.
KELLY: That's the BBC's Will Grant reporting from Havana, Cuba. Thank you.
GRANT: You're very welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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