Eduardo Gamarra Americas Insights

Cuba ’s Coming Reckoning and the Limits of Exile Power   Eduardo A Gamarra [1] Department of Politics and International Relations Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy Steve Green School of International and Public Affairs Florida International University   The removal of Nicolás Maduro from power and the U.S.-imposed co-governing arrangement in Venezuela have reverberated far beyond Caracas. Nowhere are the consequences more acute than in Cuba. For more than two decades, Havana ’s survival depended on a strategic exchange: Venezuelan oil for Cuban doctors , intelligence officers, and regime-preserving expertise. That relationship is now effectively over. For Cuba, this is not just another economic shock. It is the loss of its last major external patron, occurring at a time when the island is already facing the deepest crisis in its modern history, marked by blackouts, food shortages, a currency collapse, and sustained mass migration. Yet amid renewed speculation about...

Power Without Legitimacy:  Latin America’s Reaction to Washington’s Venezuela Gamble   Eduardo A Gamarra Florida International University   When U.S. forces extracted Nicolás Maduro from Caracas in January 2026, the Trump administration portrayed the operation as proof that American power—and American respect—had been restored. Officials argued that the decisive removal of an authoritarian leader demonstrated renewed U.S. authority in the hemisphere and sent a clear message to adversaries and allies. Public opinion data from Latin America and the Caribbean suggest a far more ambivalent verdict. Regional polling conducted in the weeks after the intervention reveals a crucial distinction: while many Latin Americans welcomed Maduro’s removal, they did not extend that approval to the United States or to Washington’s subsequent decision to co-govern Venezuela with Delcy Rodríguez’s regime. In short, the operation produced a favorable outcome without generating legitimacy. This...