Renata Keller in OZY: The Improbable Cuban Revolution

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Renata Keller, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that a number of close calls in the early days of Fidel Castro’s rise to power could have forestalled the Cuban Revolution.

Keller made her case in an August 4 article on the news website OZY entitled “The Revolution that Almost Wasn’t.”

From the text of the article:

And while Fidel Castro, according to a biography by Katiuska Blanco, claimed the Mexican authorities had them confused with gangsters, classified intelligence reports that Keller later reviewed reveal that the secret police and multiple foreign intelligence services — including Cuba’s — were in hot pursuit. They knew Castro was trying to launch a revolution, Keller says, because “Castro told them everything” during his interrogation. The arresting officer, in fact, would eventually become the head of Mexico’s secret police, and declassified CIA documents show he was an informant.

You can read the entire article here. 

Keller’s research and teaching interests focus on Latin American history, particularly the connections between foreign and domestic politics, the dynamics of the Cold War, and U.S. relations with Latin America. She has special expertise in Mexican, Cuban, Chilean, and Argentine history. Learn more about her here.