Dispatches from Havana: multiple paths to regime change in Cuba, 2006–2010

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the early twenty-first century, U.S. diplomats in Cuba helped Cuban dissidents mobilize opposition to the Cuban government. Journalists and scholars have shown that the diplomats aided the dissidents, but the literature has yet to fully incorporate details from the U.S. diplomatic cables that were published by WikiLeaks from 2010 to 2011. Nearly 500 cables in the WikiLeaks archive were written by U.S. diplomats in Havana between 2006 and 2010, a time of significant dissident activity. The cables show that the diplomats steered funding to the dissidents while trying to create a unified dissident movement backed by the international community. The cables reveal that the diplomats grew increasingly critical of the dissidents, particularly their failure to build an effective opposition movement. As the diplomats considered other options, they began focusing on Cuban bloggers. The diplomats’ goal was to create the conditions for the ouster of the Cuban government.