Scholar

Cuba

Videos

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean, comprising the island of Cuba, Isla de… more

Cuba
H-index: 12
Political science 60%
Sociology 19%
more

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Lots of people supported it bc it meant lines/rules were clearer, but it also made the state frustrated bc more barriers

Apparently China had a sort of peak of this in 00s and then decline of it again under Xi
1

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Thank you!!!
1

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Acquiring language number 5
1 14

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Switch out some proper nouns and this could easily apply to debates about another country
2 10

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
It’s part of why people would reach out to Fidel personally; his interventions were often one of the best (or sometimes only) ways to get anything through the system. It was arguably designed this way: minimal autonomy below, maximal control up top, but this required intervention
1 3

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
In Cuba I remember it being a big deal when Raul tried to impose “legalidad socialista” after decades of the much more personalist Fidelist era when restrictions were numerous but also Fidel could and often did intervene at any time to overrule them unilaterally
2 5

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
This has me thinking: has anyone written (if specifically on Cuba perfect, if other socialist state then almost as good) on how socialist states have tried to transition from nominal laws where in practice political concerns trump formal barriers to kinds of rule of law?
1 7

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
This isn’t to say don’t read it, just that I don’t even recall him being a major intellectual reference point for Cubans in Cuban academia

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by him or seen him cited for anything beyond that book
1 1

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Hey! I haven’t read it yet but I still see it sold in Cuba in shops directed at tourists (in English and Spanish) and fwiw I don’t remember it being cited or promoted for Cubans themselves to read

I also see complaints online that the translation is horrible

I’d recommend AdaFerrer’s instead
1 1

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Kotkin’s Armageddon averted
1 1

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Btw, for context these cost 50-75 a pop usually
3

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Worst case scenario, I just hold onto them for a bit longer and sell or donate them when I get back
1 5

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Donating a bunch of my books to a 503c, but there’s a couple rare Cuba books of mine that are doubles of what I already have

Is anyone interested in buying these? $25 a pop + shipping and handling, paid up front
1 3 32

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Interesting. As kotkin tells it, the USSR was basically undergoing the equivalent of the capitalist West’s structural crisis of the mid 70s but in the late 80s, as a result of its massive industrial and mining infrastructure (all energy intensive) no longer shielded from costs
1 7

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Also: oil prices slumping globally by 69% in 1986 helps to explain why Cuba (by then dependent on reexporting fuel for hard currency) was in a recession by 1987
1 1 5

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
By the 80s a lot of Soviet subsidies to Cuba would be in the form of sending subsidized crude that Cuba could either refine and consume and/or refine and reexport for hard currency just like the USSR was

Venezuela relationship with Havana only reproduced this old model
1 1 11

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
“From 1973 to 1985, energy exports accounted for 80 percent of the USSR’s expanding hard currency earnings”

From a net oil importer in the 50s, the USSR effectively becomes a petro state just as oil prices skyrocket in the 70s
2 2 18

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Thanks! That’s very kind of you :)
1

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Ahora disponible también en castellano

t.co/Mx9UZ94RVJ
1 2 5

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
The people who had blinders on but updated their priors as evidence came up have my appreciation, those that still cling to those priors bc of profound denialism my pity, but those who know they’re hawking snake oil analysis but still do it for partisan reasons earned their scorn
4

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Four years on from the J11 protests and I can’t think of two takes that aged worse than

-protesters are making economic but not political demands

-J11 was actually a color revolution psyop

The people promoting them haven’t changed, but at least they’re marginalized now
1 8

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
In the 80s Cuba was actually trading with capitalist Spain more than Spain was with Venezuela or Argentina (2nd and 3rd place in latam trade with Spain)

By 1983 a full 20%, or 1/5th, of all Spanish trade with Latin America was with still very much communist Cuba
7

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Really helpful concise explanation of Spain’s Cuba policy in the 90s

By 1994 the idea that the gov was going to crumble was increasingly unlikely, since Fidel would neutralize any opposition within the gov itself. However, Madrid worried Washington’s max pressure strat = chaos
6

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
It has v. 1.0 in the title because I’m sure this is something that I’ll revisit repeatedly in future with far more detail, and hell maybe even turn into a chapter somewhere, but this is definitely not the definitive version of this argument
5

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
I do my best to explain how government supporters ideologically justify its undemocratic nature to themselves and others, because this is absolutely something that even convinced supporters will admit to you, but I think the idea it can be defended as genuinely democratic is indefensible
1 5

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
I finally wrote a basic primer explaining why Cuba’s political system isn’t democratic

Long time coming but I kept putting it off for other projects

open.substack.com/pub/pertierr...
How Cuban Elections Work, V. 1.0
An explainer that respects your intelligence
open.substack.com
2 2 14

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
There’s a lot of friction within Petro’s gov

Unsure how substantive drug claims are, though petro is definitely juvenile and erratic

Seems like petro definitely thinks there’s appetite for it with people in his gov besides this former chancellor

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Holy hell. Former high level official in Petro’s government in Colombia went to the U.S. to try to get a green light for a coup, which the Trump admin mercifully decided to pass on

Also involved in the accusations is Petro’s own VP

t.co/3C2uRw8NyF
https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2025-06-29/alvaro-leyva-busco-en-estados-unidos-la-complicidad-de-trump-para-tumbar-a-petro.html
t.co
2 8 33

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
In addition to being a surprisingly honest explanation of Cuban media and information policies, it’s kind of striking how the arguments were basically unchanged between 1969 and when I was in undergrad in the 21st century
7

by Cuba

andrespertierra.bsky.social
Further context from her new book The Subject of the Revolution
5

References

Fields & subjects

Updated 1m