Raul alfonsin fidel castro biography

In January , I traveled nearly three hundred miles from my apartment in Buenos Aires to meet a stranger in Paraná, Argentina. We had chatted sporadically via WhatsApp, but I had agreed to spend a long weekend in her home months before we ever met. As I stepped off the bus, I had little sense of what awaited me, yet I was excited to finally meet Luz.

Our meeting happened by chance. A few months earlier, I started research in the Archivo General for my dissertation on President Raúl Alfonsín. He had led Argentina’s democratic transition, following the country’s longest and most brutal dictatorship. Between and , the military junta forcibly disappeared an estimated 30, people. I had mentioned this project to Álvaro, another doctoral student working in the archives. That weekend he texted me from his friend’s home. “You’ll never believe this,” he said, “but my friend’s parents were friends of Alfonsín.” Accompanying his text was a photo of Luz, walking alongside the president. Álvaro said that he had told Luz about my project, and she had invited me to visit.

Luz’s invitation was unexpected and unusual but also very exciting. I quickly followed up by WhatsApp. She promised to share books and photos from her late husband Enrique’s personal archives. Enrique had held local political office for Alfonsín’s party, la Unión Cívica Radical (theRadical Civic Union,UCR). He had also spent thirty years writing a history of the UCR and its important figures. After Enrique’s death, Luz had undertaken the process of editing and publishing his life’s work. Now she offered to share these materials and her memories of Alfonsín’s presidency with a curious historian from the United States.

Arriving in Paraná in January, I immediately felt overwhelmed. The bus ride from Buenos Aires lasted a little over eight hours, and Luz greeted my tired face with a flurry of questions. I worried tha

Bilateral relations

Current and historical relations between Argentina and Cuba, have existed for over a century. Both nations are members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Latin American Integration Association, Organization of American States and the Organization of Ibero-American States.

History

Argentina and Cuba share a common history in the fact that both nations were once part of the Spanish Empire. In , Argentina obtained its independence and in , Cuba obtained its independence after the Spanish–American War. On 12 May , Argentina and Cuba officially established diplomatic relations. Initially, relations were limited between both nations due to their geographic distances.

In January , Cuban revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro entered Havana and took control of the country. After the revolution, Argentina maintained relations with the new Cuban government and in May , Castro paid a visit to Argentina and met with Argentine President Arturo Frondizi. In August , Argentine born Cuban revolutionary commander, Ernesto "Che" Guevara secretly returned to Argentina for a few hours and met with President Arturo Frondizi and an aunt of his before leaving the country.

In December , Cuba declared itself Marxist and socialist, and aligned with the Soviet Union. As a result, and by U.S. pressure, on 21 January , Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS) and by September , the United States imposed a full embargo on Cuba. That same year, by U.S. insistence, Argentina and all Latin American nations (with the exception of Mexico) broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in an effort to isolate the Castro government.

On 28 May , under President Héctor Cámpora, Argentina became the third nation (after Chile and Peru) to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Former Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado became

By Jonathan C. Brown

Jonathan Brown teaches courses on the history of Latin American revolutions. He is now completing a manuscript on “How the Cuban Revolution Changed the World.” Professor Brown took the first of his four trips to Cuba in On the very day that the government announced President Fidel Castro’s incapacitating illness (August 1), Brown was touring the prison cum-museum where Fidel and Raúl Castro spent two years as political prisoners. Brown heard the news of the leadership change from the museum guide herself at the moment she was showing him the prison beds these two revolutionaries occupied in What a memorable moment for an historian!Since then, Professor Brown has busied himself negotiating the exchange agreement between the University of Texas and the Universidad de La Habana, organizing two UT conferences on Cuba, bringing three Cuban scholars to campus as visiting professors, reading thousands of documents on U.S.-Cuba relations, and delivering dozens of talks and papers on his research. Here are his thoughts on the implications for Texas-Cuba connections.

Within a week of President Barack Obama’s announcement about the renewal of diplomatic relations with Cuba, the Austin American Statesman ran a cartoon entitled “America Prepares to Invade Cuba.” It depicted a line of passengers dressed in beach wear boarding a plane heading to Havana.

Perhaps the cartoonist exaggerated, for President Obama merely loosened existing restrictions. Cuban Americans may travel to the island several times per year and send more money to relatives there. Non-Cuban Americans may travel there more freely, although special licenses are still required. The U.S. government will allow Americans to use their credit and debit cards in Cuba. The president may have cut the Gordian Knot ending 54 years of mutual hostility and eliminating one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. But he did not sever it completely.

Likely presidential candidate Jeb Bush has alrea