It’s hot in Havana. The summer’s electrical storms have arrived, lighting up the sky, while down on the ground we’ve been without power for 16 hours, meaning no sleep. The four-month-old US oil blockade is biting, but Cuba’s government still refuses to bend the knee to Washington, so surveillance aircraft are circling. An aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, has arrived in the neighbourhood. We expect an attack at any moment.

Donald Trump has made it clear that after Venezuela and Iran, Cuba is next on his list for decapitation. His administration wants a change of government and the economy opened up. Cuba’s 95-year-old ex-president Raul Castro has been indicted for murder, opening the way for an abduction like the one in Caracas in January. ‘I do believe I’ll be… having the honour of taking Cuba,’ Trump told reporters in March. ‘Whether I free it, take it – think I could do anything I want with it.’

Cuban exiles – many of them friends – criticise my life here. ‘You’re privileged,’ they say. Which is fair – I’m currently annoyed that someone stole the wheel nuts from my BMW. For my neighbours on state salaries or pensions devastated by hyperinflation, life is........

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