For many decades, premium Cuban cigars have served as the world standard against which other cigars are judged. The story is told that, immediately before President John F. Kennedy approved the embargo against Cuba in 1962, he sent an assistant to Washington tobacco shops to buy up the available supply of the hand-made Cuban cigars […]

While economic liberalization movements in Latin America have much in common, national policies often take distinctive forms. Even Cuba has found it necessary to take a number of market-oriented steps to address the economic crisis ushered in by the loss of Soviet economic support after 1989. At issue in this regard are patterns of interaction […]

Notes1 In late September 1990, speaking at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), President Fidel Castro announced that the country had entered a “special period in time of peace.”2 He likened the prevailing economic situation—sharply reduced levels of imports of fuel, food, […]

Among the many challenges a post-Castro Cuba will face is the environmental condition of the island after four decades of environmental neglect and mismanagement. Besides creating a new political and socioeconomic framework, Cuba’s new leaders will have to ensure that economic development does not occur at the expense of environmental and human health concerns, an […]

This paper is written as a policy paper to discuss the dynamics of public opinion in Cuba in terms of the impact of selected events on different groups of the population and the potential it provides for building a civil society in Cuba. It is a follow-up of a previous analysis published by Freedom House […]