Nervy time for Havana neighbours of top officials as fears of US attack grow

A new question in being asked in Havana as people digest the news that the US has brought criminal charges against Cuba’s 94-year-old former president, Raúl Castro : who’s your neighbour? If you happen to live near a senior figure in Cuba’s government or armed forces, others suck their teeth in an expression of concerned sympathy. For the first time, US military strikes on the island are being considered a serious possibility. There is also anger at Washington, from a population that had previously lost its faith in its own government. “How dare they?” said a teacher in Havana, who was considering attending a march against the indictment on Friday morning. “I’d never normally go to something like that, but it’s despicable. Who are they to threaten us in such a way?” In 1996, protesters gather at the Brothers to the Rescue hangar at Opa-Locka airport, Florida, after Cuba shot down two planes. Photograph: Chuck Fadely/TNS/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock It’s now 30 years since Cuban fighter jets shot down two unarmed Cessna planes belonging to the exile group Brothers to the Rescue in international airspace just north of Havana. Four people died. At the time, it was seen not only as an atrocity, but a terrible strategic error. What is less remembered is that it wasn’t a surprise. …