SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
We begin this hour with increasing U.S. pressure on Cuba. The Department of Justice has announced criminal charges against the former Cuban president, Raul Castro, with the U.S. aircraft carrier moving through the Caribbean. Cuban ambassador to the United States Lianys Torres Rivera tells NPR that Cuba does not want a war with the United States.
LIANYS TORRES RIVERA: Cuba is a country of peace. Cuba is not a threat to the U.S. Cuba wants only to have a future that is decided by the Cubans without interference.
SIMON: NPR international correspondent Eyder Peralta is following developments. Eyder, thanks so much for being with us.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: Please begin by reminding us with some of the details about what's happened so far this week.
PERALTA: Yeah. I mean, the U.S. seems to be pulling out all the stops to bring the Cuban government to the table. They're showing their military muscle with the arrival of the aircraft carrier Nimitz to the Caribbean this week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also introduced measures targeting U.S.-resident family members of senior Cuban officials. In one prominent case, he revoked the green card of the sister of a senior military official who oversees GAESA, and that's a Cuban military-owned conglomerate. And he said that the days of families of regime leaders leading lavish lives with, quote, "stolen blood money" are over.
Of course, the biggie was that the U.S. brought criminal charges against Raul Castro, the former president of Cuba and the man who is still arguably the most powerful man in the country. The U.S. has accused him of murder and conspiracy. Prosecutors allege that in 1996, when Raul Castro was defense minister, he ordered the downing of two civilian aircraft flown by the Miami-based Cuban American group Brothers to the Rescue. Three U.S. citizens and a U.S. permanent resident were killed.
SIMON: When - Eyder, when we said at the top, Cuban ambassador tells NPR, that means she told you...
PERALTA: Yeah.
SIMON: ...That Cuba doesn't want interference. What else did she have to say?
PERALTA: Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera started by pointing out that these planes were not merely humanitarian. She said - and this is true - that they had been violating Cuban airspace for years.
RIVERA: Will - the U.S. will allow a single airplane flying Washington city, for example. The U.S. government knew what was going to happen and did nothing to prevent that. Army General Raul Castro is a leader of the Cuban Revolution - widely respected, admired, is the living history of the Cuban Revolution and is someone that is sacred for Cubans. We will defend Raul as we will defend sovereignty and independence till the end.
SIMON: Words like living history and sacred for all Cubans doesn't sound very negotiable.
PERALTA: Yeah. I think that's right. And I think when the ambassador says, we will defend Raul Castro until the end, we have to think about Venezuela. Remember, the United States indicted former President Nicolás Maduro before they sent U.S. troops to swoop in and depose him by bringing him to a jail in New York. And the Cuban government has said over and over that all of these actions by the United States are not about democracy in Cuba, that they're not about seeking justice. They've said these actions are about justifying a military intervention. So I asked the ambassador, what is Havana willing to put on the table to keep something like that from happening?
You're ready to negotiate on everything, including what the U.S. has been asking for for decades - multiparty system, more recently a change in presidency.
RIVERA: We are ready to sit and engage with the U.S. to talk about bilateral issues. There are red lines regarding our independence, our sovereignty, our right to self-determination, our legal order, political system, that won't be - never on the table. As we don't ask the U.S. to put on the table your political system, your legal system, because that's up to the American people.
PERALTA: And, you know, that message was reinforced in Havana on Friday. The Cuban government gathered thousands of supporters near the U.S. embassy. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was there. And they chanted, viva Raul, and, patria o muerte, which translates to homeland or death.
SIMON: NPR's Eyder Peralta. Thanks so much.
PERALTA: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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