November 26, 2016
CubaOn the death of Fidel Castro my thoughts today turned immediately to Huber Matos, who sadly did not live to see this day. Matos was a true hero of the Cuban Revolution--and was therefore imprisone…
February 20, 2015
CubaRecently I wrote here about how Secretary of State Kerry absorbed the shouting and screaming of the Iranian negotiator in the nuclear talks, apparently without any objection. But it seems Kerry is no…
August 6, 2011
Fidel and Raul Castro have decided not to free the American hostage they now hold. Or, as the newspapers put it in legal language “Cuban court rejects appeal by U.S. contractor.” Alan Gross was a U…
November 20, 2019
Elections and VotingCFR invited the presidential candidates challenging President Trump in the 2020 election to articulate their positions on twelve critical foreign policy issues. Candidates’ answers are posted exactly…
April 18, 2018
CubaMiguel Diaz-Canel, set to replace Raul Castro as president of Cuba after sixty years of Castro rule, will be faced with the challenges of implementing economic reform and sidestepping regional isolat…
November 16, 2012
CubaAlan Gross is a former USAID contractor who has been in a Cuban jail since December 3, 2009. The most recent reports are that he has lost 105 pounds while in prison, and may well be suffering from u…
May 26, 2015
CubaWhen President Obama junked 60 years of U.S. foreign policy to seek a rapprochement with the Castro regime in Cuba, he was aware that he would be accused of ignoring human rights. After all, the Obam…
February 5, 2019
Election 2020Julián Castro is seeking do what no Democrat has done in ninety-six years: win the party’s presidential nomination without first having been either a governor, senator, or vice president. The last pe…
February 5, 2016
CubaThe efforts of the Obama administration to ’normalize’ relations with Cuba have been mocked this past week. The U.S. Southern Command holds an annual regional security conference. For decades one of…
November 4, 2003
CubaJulia E. Sweig, the Council on Foreign Relations’ top Cuba expert, says there is considerable pressure from congressional Republicans to ease the U.S. trade embargo on Havana by opening up travel and…