Dr. Tedesco Analyzes Current Events in Cuba
07/13/2020
Laura Tedesco, Ph.D., professor of political science and associate dean for humanities and social sciences, recently published two articles analyzing various aspects of the political and social reality in present day Cuba.
Tedesco and colleague Rut Diamint, Ph.D., a professor of international relations at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, published the article, “Human Rights Abuses in Cuba: High or Low Intensity?” in the Deusto Journal for Human Rights. This semiannual publication put out by the Pedro Arrupe Human Rights Institute at the University of Deusto is an industry benchmark for human rights research in academia, politics and social activism.
In the article, Tedesco and Diamint conduct a detailed analysis of the evolution of
human rights violations in Cuba, with the intention of determining their level of
intensity. They consider the legal framework established by the new constitution while
keeping in mind the trend toward increased human rights violations, despite the economic
reform measures implemented by Raul Castro when he took office. Tedesco and Diamint
base their analysis on a robust collection of interviews that were conducted between
2016 and 2019, as well as various sources reporting illegal arrests on the island.
SLU-Madrid Campus Director and Academic Dean, Paul Vita, Ph.D., referred to the article
as a “prime example of our faculty producing important research that contributes to
fighting for social justice internationally.”
Tedesco and Diamint also joined forces to write an article for "Agenda Pública," a
webpage for political and economic editorials managed by El País. In their article,
“Cuba: Más Conectada y Más Aislada,” they contend that the high fees for mobile data established by the Empresa de Telecomunicaciones
de Cuba S.A. (Etecsa), the only mobile service provider on the island, serve to control
and monitor the population to ensure the status-quo that sustains the Cuban government.