 
 The United States
and Cuba are separated
by only a narrow 90-mile stretch of water just south of the Florida Keys,
but since Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army seized power in 1959, the island
that was once America’s
playground has become its enemy.
Fidel Castro’s communist government has survived a tight US
trade embargo, a tense missile crisis and the collapse of its Soviet
patron. Now, after 49 years at the helm,
the world’s longest serving political leader has stepped down, handing power to his brother Raúl.
On this edition of America Abroad, we explore what this
change in leadership will mean for the citizens of Cuba,
and for Cuba’s
relationship with the US.
Program Overview
Ray Suarez looks at the reaction of Miami’s Cuban-American community to the news of Raúl’s
ascendancy and how that community has changed in recent years. With Andy Gómez, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban
American Studies at the University of Miami; Aldo Leiva, Board Member of the
Cuban American National Foundation; Álvaro Fernández, President of the Cuban
American Commission for Family Rights; and Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a talk show
host for Radio Mambi and co-founder of the Cuban Liberty Council.
Deborah Amos talks to Frank Mora, Professor of National
Security Strategy at the National Defense University in Washington, about what
to expect from Raúl and from Washington.
Deborah Amos traces
the history of US-Cuba relations, from the Spanish-American War to the
controversy over Elián González. Featuring Dr. Louis Pérez, Professor of
History at the University of North
Carolina.
Ray Suarez looks
back at the decisions leading up to the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which
strengthened the US
embargo against Cuba.
Featuring Richard Nuccio, former Special Advisor to President Clinton on Cuban Affairs;
Morton Halperin, former Special Assistant to President Clinton and Senior Director for
Democracy at the National Security Council; and Roger Noriega, former senior staff
member of Senator Jesse Helms and a key author of the Helms-Burton Act.
Deborah Amos
explores the economic and political conditions of daily life on the island and
looks ahead to possible changes in post-Fidel Cuba.
With Julia Sweig, Director for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign
Relations; Dagoberto Rodríguez, Chief of the Cuban Special Interests Section in
Washington, DC; Dr. Mark Falcoff, Resident Scholar Emeritus at the American
Enterprise Institute and author of Cuba:
The Morning After—Confronting Castro’s Legacy; and Dennis Hays, former Coordinator
for Cuban Affairs at the Department of State and former Executive Vice President of
the Cuban American National Foundation.
Note: This is an updated version of our March 2007 program, After Castro: America and Cuba.
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