News + analysis

Dispatches

Short editorial pieces on the country in transition — politics, sanctions, day-to-day shifts.

50 stories

People standing near a doorway on a Cuban residential street.

Cuba’s Prison Door Still Opens Inward

The reported detention of former 11J prisoner Andy García Lorenzo after he filmed a protest in Santa Clara raises a harder question than whether Cuba has released its political prisoners. A prison sentence that follows a citizen home is not a sentence with an end.

Natalia Suyos · Aug 31, 2026

More from Dispatches

Cuba’s Medicine Cabinet Is Now a WhatsApp Group

Havana’s new Farma Joven program uses WhatsApp, volunteers, and donated medicines to reach patients. Its kindness is real, but so is the institutional collapse it quietly records.

Natalia Suyos · Aug 29, 2026

Cuba’s Volleyball Bronze Is Not a Restoration

Cuba’s women returned to the NORCECA podium after fifteen years away. Their bronze medal is a real achievement, but it is not evidence that the system claiming it has restored what it lost.

Natalia Suyos · Aug 28, 2026

Cuba’s Guestbook Is Now a Sanctions List

Natalia Suyos · Aug 21, 2026

Cuba Cannot Be Governed as a Contingency

Natalia Suyos · Aug 19, 2026

A Judge’s Robe Is Not a Party Card

Natalia Suyos · Aug 17, 2026

Cuba Registers the Vehicles It Could Not Build

Natalia Suyos · Aug 16, 2026

Cuba’s Application Window Closes

Natalia Suyos · Aug 15, 2026

The Empty Chairs in Santo Domingo

The Dominican Republic’s expulsion of Cuban diplomatic officials leaves more than vacant desks in Santo Domingo. It exposes how Havana’s old language of siege now meets a Caribbean increasingly willing to leave it outside the room.

Natalia Suyos · Aug 14, 2026

Cuba’s Book Fair Leaves the Fortress

Natalia Suyos · Aug 10, 2026

Cuba’s Centenary Conference Hall

Havana’s Communist parties conference arrives just before Fidel Castro’s centenary. The regime is using remembrance as a test of continuity in a country that needs a future more than another ceremony.

Natalia Suyos · Aug 8, 2026

Cuba’s Power Grid Cannot Restart

Natalia Suyos · Aug 5, 2026

The Cuban Rider at the Tour de France

Natalia Suyos · Aug 4, 2026

Colombia’s Closing Embassy Door in Havana

Gustavo Petro’s final foreign trip is expected to take him to Havana just as Colombia’s incoming president promises to close the embassy behind him. The real question is whether a diplomatic door can be used without becoming another piece of the Cuban regime’s stagecraft.

Natalia Suyos · Jul 31, 2026

Raúl Castro’s Absence at the Moncada Ceremony

Raúl Castro’s absence from Cuba’s July 26 ceremony matters because Moncada is not merely an anniversary for the regime. It is the living credential of a revolution now forced to read its founding authority from a letter.

Natalia Suyos · Jul 27, 2026

The State Department’s Cuba File Cabinet

Natalia Suyos · Jul 24, 2026

The Parish Carts Carrying Aid in Cuba

A U.S. humanitarian flight carrying food and hygiene kits has opened a narrow supply route into Cuba through Catholic parishes. The boxes matter less as diplomacy than as a challenge to the regime’s claim that all care must pass through the state.

Natalia Suyos · Jul 22, 2026

The Flagpole at the Cuban Embassy

Natalia Suyos · Jul 21, 2026

The Map in the Pentagon Briefing Room

Natalia Suyos · Jul 18, 2026

The Last Cuban Doctors Leave Guatemala

The departure of the last Cuban medical contingent from Guatemala closes a decades-long arrangement built from real care, state control and political need. What remains is the harder question of who will be waiting in the clinic after the white coats are gone.

Natalia Suyos · Jul 16, 2026

U.S.–Cuba Relations: A Timeline of the Thaw (2015–2018)

A running chronicle of the U.S.–Cuba diplomatic thaw and its aftermath — the announcements, votes, and openings that reshaped relations between Havana and Washington.

Staff · Jul 13, 2026

Cuba’s Unofficial Negotiator

Cuba has publicly placed Raúl Castro’s grandson near its negotiations with Washington without giving him a formal public office. The arrangement reveals where authority still resides when the regime is under pressure.

Natalia Suyos · Jul 13, 2026

The Blank Space on the Gallery Wall

Natalia Suyos · Jul 12, 2026

The School Register That Became a Prison Ledger

Natalia Suyos · Jul 11, 2026

The Exit Door the Revolution Left Open

Cuba's new immigration laws quietly abolished the exile penalty — the twenty-four-month cliff that turned departure into legal death — at the precise moment the regime is staging its most theatrical performance of revolutionary resistance. The revolution has opened the door it spent sixty years pretending wasn't there.

Natalia Suyos · Jul 1, 2026

The Dish That Wasn't on the Menu

Simons Chase · Jun 23, 2026

The Indictment That Waited Thirty Years

On May 20, a federal indictment unsealed at Freedom Tower charged Raúl Castro with murder for the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown. The file had been ready for thirty years — and kept closed, at a price no one in Washington ever announced publicly.

Natalia Suyos · Jun 15, 2026

Dispatches

Cuba’s Prison Door Still Opens Inward

Cuba’s Medicine Cabinet Is Now a WhatsApp Group

Cuba’s Volleyball Bronze Is Not a Restoration

Cuba’s Guestbook Is Now a Sanctions List

Cuba Cannot Be Governed as a Contingency

A Judge’s Robe Is Not a Party Card

Cuba Registers the Vehicles It Could Not Build

Cuba’s Application Window Closes

The Empty Chairs in Santo Domingo

Cuba’s Book Fair Leaves the Fortress

Cuba’s Centenary Conference Hall

Cuba’s Power Grid Cannot Restart

The Cuban Rider at the Tour de France

Colombia’s Closing Embassy Door in Havana

Raúl Castro’s Absence at the Moncada Ceremony

The State Department’s Cuba File Cabinet

The Parish Carts Carrying Aid in Cuba

The Flagpole at the Cuban Embassy

The Map in the Pentagon Briefing Room

The Last Cuban Doctors Leave Guatemala

U.S.–Cuba Relations: A Timeline of the Thaw (2015–2018)

Cuba’s Unofficial Negotiator

The Blank Space on the Gallery Wall

The School Register That Became a Prison Ledger

The Exit Door the Revolution Left Open

The Dish That Wasn't on the Menu

The Indictment That Waited Thirty Years

The Map With No Safe Roads

The Negotiator on the List

The Sentence That Cannot Reach Its Verb

The Revolution Is Out of Road

US Imposes New Restrictions on Travel to Cuba

MLB Formalizes Link With Cuba

Full Internet Access Goes Mobile In Cuba

Carnival Expanding Cuba Cruises

New Elections Mark The End Of Castro Family Rule In Cuba

Under Trump's New Rules, American Travelers To Cuba Must Be Accompanied And Surveilled For Compliance

Here Is OFAC's List Of Offending Cuban Entities Americans Are Barred From Doing Business With

The History Of The Future Of Cuba

Regent Seven Seas Adding Cuba Calls

More Than 50 Years OF Questions, Conspiracies And Cuba: The JFK Files

Habanos Introduces Retro Design In Newest Addition To Its Cigar Portfolio

Regret And Hope Define Latest Move By U.S. State Department To Expel Cuban Diplomats

Cuba's Habanos SA Introduces New Cigar With Travel Humidor

Here's How To Support Irma Relief Efforts In Cuba

Diplomatic Relations Between The U.S. And Cuba At Stake As Mystery Attacks Go Unsolved

Mission Log: Cuba’s Deep Seaweed Scene

Notes From the Finca Vigía

Cuba Plans First UNESCO Global Geopark

Canadian Diplomat In Havana Appears To Be Part Of Sonic Device Attack