Episode guest: Alexander Aviña
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The Trump administration is attempting to topple Cuba's government through economic warfare.
An oil embargo and other punitive measures have led to severe consequences, including massive blackouts and water shortages. Ordinary Cubans are suffering, yet both they and their communist government are persevering — at least for now. The New York Times reports the CIA has established a secret task force to increase the pressure. The Cold War may be over, but U.S.-Cuba relations are frozen in time.
What explains more than six decades of hostility? Historian Alexander Aviña is our guest. He's an associate professor of Latin American history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University.
Further reading/listening:
Timeline of U.S.-Cuba relations (Council on Foreign Relations)
Flirting with Armageddon w/ Max Hastings on the Cuban Missile Crisis