When we approach the Cuban debate, the scope of political actors is generally limited to one or two, Fidel Castro and/or Raúl Castro. Partially true in the past, nowadays it becomes an increasingly misleading approach not only because of very obvious reasons of age and health, but because it tends to bypass and ignore completely […]
Procesos Electorales y élites Políticas en la Cuba del Tercer Milenio
El régimen que encabeza Fidel Castro desde hace ya 44 años, plantea como objeto de estudio, entre muchas otras dimensiones, las del examen cuidadoso de procesos electorales y élites políticas. Un planteamiento usual es el que afirma que en Cuba no hay elecciones o elecciones competitivas y, subsecuentemente, la ausencia de democracia; el otro planteamiento—no […]
FAR: Mastering Reforms
More than 15 years ago, something very important began to take shape. The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR) began to restructure their industries and services. Such changes became to be known as perfeccionamiento empresarial (managerial improvement). No one paid too much attention to this development at the time despite of its tremendous importance. Nowadays, and especially […]
Cuba’s Armed Forces: Power and Reforms
The exact place and role of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, FAR) have been the object of numerous studies from very different perspectives, especially among U.S. and Cuban- American scholars.1 In the past, Cuba’s military potentials in its conflict with the United States, its alliance with the former Soviet Union, and Cuba’s military […]