Humiliated by Iran, the US wants an easy scalp: keep your eyes on Cuba | Owen Jones

The decision to charge Raul Castro is grimly reminiscent of the run-up to Trump's military operation in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Cuban people are suffering needlessly

The US war machine has turned its sights on Cuba. Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American secretary of state who has long craved the fall of the island's communist government, made that clear again last week. While professing a preference for a negotiated settlement", he said the chances of a deal were not high". A couple of months ago, I saw up close the economic devastation already inflicted by decades of US siege - and, since January, by a crippling oil blockade introduced by Donald Trump.

The US has now charged the country's former president Raul Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft over the downing of two planes in 1996. The evidence points increasingly in one direction: it is all grimly reminiscent of the indictment of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, used to justify his kidnapping by US forces.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist