The most important Cuban dissident still in Cuba, the others having been forced into exile by now, was supposed to complete his 5 year prison term last week. He has been incommunicado at an unknown location (AKA disappeared) by Cuban security forces since right before going free

First heard about Cuban Studies Journal as an undergrad and honestly never even thought to imagine publishing in it, so it's a surreal feeling to see my name in its table of contents

One of my favorite historians is Fernand Braudel, made deservedly famous for his massive two-volume history of the Mediterranean world in the 16th century. Had always known he wrote initial draft while a POW during WWII. Just found out he was held prisoner here in Mainz.

Another potentially interesting bit of news re: Maduro extraction by US special forces. Cuba is officially confirming 32 dead, between military and intelligence officials, as a result of the strike. This may be linked to claim that he had personal Cuban bodyguards www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Important words of wisdom from the incomparable Thomas Mann for these troubled times

Something that this has me thinking about is Cuba in the 1950s. Fidel Castro thought the Directorio's plan to assassinate Batista was a major strategic mistake precisely because it might succeed. He thought anti-Batista sentiment was unifying, a replacement would dull consensus

No matter how dumb things seem, they can apparently always be dumber: "Mr. Maduro's regular public dancing and other displays of nonchalance in recent weeks helped persuade some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them and trying to call what he believed to be a bluff"

Former Cuban Minister of the Economy, Alejandro Gil, has been found guilty in closed door trial of espionage and corruption; he will be the highest ranking official that I am aware of to face such serious charges since Ochoa Affair back in 1989

It has come to my attention that Tolkien's elven languages are declension based, with Quenya having 10, which makes the fact that some people learn to speak/write in these languages for nothing more than the love of the game and bragging rights all the more impressive (if a bit masochistic)

Something that happens surprisingly often in post-1959 Cuba is Fidel accusing someone of being CIA or of plotting against his gov only for the gov to quietly walk this back later because it is unfounded Here is the Cuban message to Spain following the 1960 Lojendio Affair

Re: this bit of the Axios story saying that Maduro is scared to leave because he thinks his Cuban 'handlers' will execute him. This... feels unconvincing on its face, and the fact that it is coming from 'US officials' rather than any Venezuelan source makes me even more cautious

Though we lack an official reason for the measure, this explanation based on inference in the piece seems the most likely: the accounts are frozen because the money deposited in them was already spent, making this a sort of de facto forced loan

Earlier this year a bunch of foreign companies had their bank accounts frozen indefinitely; they cannot take their money out of Cuba. This measure has now been extended not only to foreign companies generally but even embassy bank accounts. Unclear when/if money will be back t.co/RU4xqvdYji

Cuba made headlines for 1/10 (10%) leaving the island, then again for 1/5 (20%), but now as many as 1/4 (25%) have left and many who remain are just trying to figure out how to get out. Insane. Unprecedented. Depressing as hell. www.economist.com/the-americas...

Went looking for the little blue mascot from back then to confirm its name, but the website where I came across a wiki page for it is some kind of weird gladiator-transformers-crossover universe fan fiction page?

The latest episode of my podcast on the history of Cuba is now live. This one focuses on the way that our sources and scholarly debates change from the pre-colonial to the early colonial periods, in an attempt to make it accessible. And look! It's short! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

I'm most of the way through this book on the parallels between cult strategies, political extremism, and 'totalitarian systems'. I think parts of it are helpful but also kind of wary of a lot of the key args

The Soviet fleet was only 12th biggest in the world by 1961 per Oscar Sanchez-Sibony's Red Globalization This recontextualizes, for me, how much of the fleet would be tied up in shipments to Cuba for sugar that the USSR and its allies didn't even need in the 60s

from here

"It is estimated that from the end of [WWII] until its fall, the Soviet Union offered a total of $68 billion in economic aid, of which about $41 billion had been delivered before the fall; this is about the same as the United States provided Israel alone during the same period."

Finally got around to reading this and am about halfway through. Honestly, pretty important book imho. Certainly important for moving past the false idea of capitalist vs socialist world economies in the Cold War and super helpful for understanding how Soviet trade strategy worked

Finally getting around to reading something more in-depth about Libya. About a quarter of the way through and, honestly, it is making me more skeptical of Libya comparisons for Venezuela rather than more. There's some points of similarity but feels apples to oranges

A rare case of a journalist actually documenting how congresses/parliamentary meetings in Cuba are choreographed theater. This from Oppenheimer's "Castro's Final Hour", on the 1991 Cuban Communist Party Congress, that was set to debate reforms to economy and political system

"It doesn't make sense to create islands of efficiency such as tourism or biotechnology in an economy that is globally inefficient. We have to be able to invest the proceeds of our showcase industries [...]. Otherwise, we're throwing money into a bottomless barrel." - Cuban official circa 1991

Honestly, even if the Sandinistas had won the 1990 elections, it sounds like they were looking down the barrel of economic collapse anyway bc of hyperinflation combined with the imminent loss of most of its supply of oil from the USSR and Cuba

Reading something else entirely I tripped across Gabriel García Márquez saying, on the record, back in in the early 1990s that he had personally been behind the freeing of over 2k "political prisoners". Gabo isn't exactly a CIA agent or enemy of the Left, so maybe hearing it from him helps ppl

Some quick thoughts on NYT piece that Trump authorized the CIA to act inside Venezuela 1) seems insane he's announcing this before results rather than after 2) unclear what operations will look like, but seems likely to help solidify gov coalition vs foreign attack www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

For years Cuba's peso was equivalent to 25:1 dollar at official rates and around 30-40 on the black market exchange. Recent inflation shot official exchange to 125:1 dollar and unofficial rates to 300-400. Then it stabilized just short of 400 for a while. It's now up to an eye watering 460:1 USD

I hope that the luxurious feeling of getting to drink an espresso at heart of the historic platz/square of a centuries if not millennia old European city doesn’t just fade and become normal. At the very least not anytime soon

Climbed a small mountain and took photos of a small Rhine spa town from the ruins of a medieval castle owned by some robber baron who lived off extracting tolls from river traffic