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This issue follows a previous special issue on “Cuba in the 1990s: Economy, Politics, and Society” (S&D no. 29, 2001), which featured mainly Cuban authors discussing the situation on the island during the economic crisis called the “special period in time of peace.” That period, beginning in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union and other European socialist countries and the loss of their trade and aid, caused severe economic and social hardships. We presented a variety of Cuban views regarding desired reforms.

Aurelio Alonso is associate director of the journal Casa de las Américas and an adjunct professor of Sociology at the University of Havana. He is the author of Iglesia y Política en Cuba (2000), El laberinto tras la caída del Muro (2006), America Latina y el Caribe: territorios religiosos y desafíos para el diálogo (2008), and La guerra de la paz (2010). <Aurelius@cubarte.cult.cu>

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