UCLA - University of California - Los Angeles
03/09/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/09/2026 18:02
Cuba and the threat of US intervention
Cuba and the threat of US intervention
The current presidential administration continues to signal that U.S. intervention in Cuba is imminent. President Donald Trump said Friday, March 6, that Cuba "is going to fall pretty soon" and assigned Secretary of State Marco Rubio to negotiate a deal aimed at change. In recent weeks, the administration has put pressure on other countries to restrict oil imports and tourism to Cuba and has assigned the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to look into legal action against the Cuban government.
UCLA experts are available to make sense of it all and to provide political, historical, social and economic context in this developing story.
Derby is a professor of history at UCLA and co-director of the UC Cuba Academic Initiative. She is an expert on the modern Caribbean, Latin American political regimes, authoritarianism, state-sponsored terror, U.S. imperialism, popular Catholicism and cultural history.
She can comment on the current political situation in Cuba and its history, including the Cuban Revolution.
Email: [email protected]
Edwards is the Henry Ford II Professor of International Business Economics and faculty director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. An expert on international economics, economic development and the Latin American economy, Edwards was also the chief economist for the Latin America and Caribbean region for the World Bank from 1993 to 1996.
He can answer questions about the economic impacts of U.S. intervention in Cuba.
Edwards can do interviews in Spanish.
Email: [email protected]
Hinojosa-Ojeda is a professor and chair of the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana, Chicano and Central American Studies. A political scientist with a background in economics and anthropology, Hinojosa-Ojeda can speak on a variety of immigration-related subjects, including trade, investment and migration relations between the United States, Mexico, Latin America and the Pacific Rim, as well as international political economy and the labor market for Latinos in the United States.
Hinojosa-Ojeda can comment on the economic and political context and impacts of U.S. intervention and sanctions in Cuba.
Hinojosa-Ojeda can do interviews in Spanish.
Email: [email protected]
Barreto is a professor of political science and Chicana/o and Central American studies. He is an expert on voter patterns, polling and research, especially for Latino communities and, more generally, on how racial and ethnic minorities participate in politics in the United States. Co-founder of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, he has also published research on Cuban American voting patterns.
He can comment on the political implications of and public sentiment around foreign policy actions.
Email: [email protected]
Radd is a lecturer in law at the UCLA School of Law and in global studies, international and area studies at the UCLA College. He is also a senior fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations, a research fellow with the UCLA Center for Middle East Development and a member of the UCLA International Institute.
He can comment on U.S. foreign policy across the globe.
Email: [email protected]
Tags: experts
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