Our Woman in Havana

Vicki Huddleston Wins Special Peace Corps Writers Award For RPCVs 2019 (Peru)

harrycss — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 03:30:10 +0000

Ambassador Vicki Huddleston (Peru 1964-66) served under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush as Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. She also served as U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar and Mali. Her report for the Brookings Institution about normalizing relations with Cuba was adapted for President Obama’s diplomatic opening with Raúl Castro in 2014. […]

Intelligence Matters – CBS News

harrycss — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 22:49:02 +0000

Vicki Huddleston talks with Michael Morell on Intelligence Matters CBS NEWS – WASHINGTON BUREAU MICHAEL MORELL: Vicki, welcome to the show. It is great to have you on Intelligence Matters. VICKI HUDDLESTON: I’m delighted to be here. Thank you, Michael. MICHAEL MORELL:So, Vicki, I want our listeners to know that in every job that you had in […]

“Trump’s policy is tragic for the Cuban people”

Vicki Huddleston — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:58:07 +0000

Vicki Huddleston was the first female representative of the United States in Cuba, as head of its Interests Section in Havana from 1999 to 2002 - again as ambassador since 2015. Vicki presented her book Our Woman in Havana on Tuesday in Miami, a memoir of her diplomatic mission on the communist island politically substantial and with crazy nonsense on a personal level. This interview is published in Spanish.

_read the full article

Jousting with Fidel

Vicki Huddleston — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 22:11:10 +0000

SAIS alum Vicki Huddleston reflects on her experience as informal ambassador to Cuba and her tense relationship with Fidel Castro Vicki Huddleston once got into a fight with Fidel Castro over her dog. Granted, it was a dispute waged by proxy, but the Cuban dictator did seem personally involved. Here is what happened. From 1999 to 2002, Huddleston, SAIS '75 (MA), was director of the United States Interests Section in Havana, which, in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, made her the equivalent of the U.S. ambassador. She owned an Afghan hound she had named Havana, which she liked to enter in dog shows.

_read the full article

A Cuba without a Castro

Vicki Huddleston — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 18:12:19 +0000

I first met Fidel Castro in 1991, shortly after I became the U.S. State Department’s lead diplomat on Cuba. I had traveled from Washington to Havana for a celebration marking Mr. Castro’s withdrawal of 50,000 Cuban troops from southern Africa. At 64, his famous beard was greying, but he was still a handsome man, over six feet tall, with a booming voice and charismatic presence.

As Castro era ends in Cuba, so should the U.S. embargo

Vicki Huddleston — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 17:47:24 +0000

Raúl Castro is expected to step down as president of Cuba on Thursday. His handpicked successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is likely to be appointed by the National Assembly of People's Power soon afterward. For the first time in more than half a century, the island will be led by someone not named Castro.

Trump Is Returning Cuba Policy to the Cold War

Vicki Huddleston — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 17:52:31 +0000

A little more than a year ago, Cubans were exulting in the normalization of relations between their country and the United States after decades of trade and travel barriers. But on a recent trip to Havana, I found Cubans dismayed by President Trump’s reversal of the détente started by his predecessor, Barack Obama. Mr. Trump had appealed to older Cuban-Americans by taking a tough stance against the Castro regime on the campaign trail, and they helped him carry Florida in the 2016 election.

Why We Must Help Save Mali

Vicki Huddleston — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 22:39:50 +0000

America, which has spent more than $500 million over the last four years to keep Islamist militants at bay in West Africa, has its hands full in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Libya, among other places, but it is in our national interest to support the French. North African countries, in particular, Algeria, must also help save Mali from catastrophe.

A Retreat on Cuba Policy

Vicki Huddleston — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 17:32:49 +0000

“Can Trump Compete With Obama on Cuba?,” by Jorge I. Domínguez (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, June 27), is an excellent analysis of President Trump’s Cuba policy from one of the foremost experts on United States-Cuba relations. I would add that no matter the degree to which Mr. Trump rolls back President Barack Obama’s opening, what he has […]

Don’t Turn on Ethiopia

Vicki Huddleston — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:03:23 +0000

NINE years ago, two nations began the first modern war in sub-Saharan Africa, leaving in two years more than 100,000 dead. Today Eritrea and Ethiopia could reignite their old border conflict. Arms and money from radicals throughout the Middle East, as well as troops trained in Eritrea, have strengthened an insurgency in Ogaden Province, in southeastern Ethiopia.