Cuba at a Crossroads: Crisis and the Long Struggle for Liberty | Today's Battlegrounds | Hoover Institution

Cuba at a Crossroads: Crisis and the Long Struggle for Liberty | Today's Battlegrounds | Hoover Institution

From Today’s Battlegrounds by Hoover Institution

May 13, 2026 · 47 min · Episode 93

About this episode

Rosa María Payá and H.R. McMaster discuss the current crisis in Cuba and the struggle for liberty.

Join Rosa María Payá, founder of Cuba Decide and a commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and Hoover Senior Fellow, H.R. McMaster, as they discuss US-Cuba relations, Cuba’s deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, its internal challenges of governance and repression, and prospects for a more peaceful and secure future for the Cuban people. For more conversations from world leaders from key countries, subscribe to receive instant notification of the next episode. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Rosa María Payá is the founder of Cuba Decide and a commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She is the daughter of Oswaldo Payá, who led the Varela Project — a citizen initiative that invoked Cuba’s own constitution to demand a referendum on free elections, free assembly, and free expression. The regime responded in 2003 with what became known as the Black Spring, jailing 75 activists, many of them Varela organizers. Oswaldo Payá pressed on with his work until he died in a 2012 car crash that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights later concluded was caused by agents of the Cuban state. Rosa María has continued her father’s work, documenting…

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