Leading Cuban neuroscientist, Mitchell Valdés Sosa joins Cuba Analysis to discuss Cuba’s commitments to sovereignty, socialism and science. He explains how the National Centre for Scientific Research, founded by Fidel Castro in 1965, trained Cubans in biomedical sciences, and incubated multiple research and development centres, including the Neuroscience Centre that he directs. Cuba’s unique state-founded, state-owned biotechnology sector, organised today under BioCubaFarma, emerged from this process in the 1980s.
Valdés Sosa outlines the ‘grand strategy’ behind Cuba’s investment in education and science, and the creation of ‘full cycle’ research centres that combine basic research, production, and foreign trade. He argues that this socialist model, free from speculative private interests, allows the sector to prioritise public health, produce affordable medicines, and tackle neglected diseases that big pharma ignores, including meningitis B in Africa.
We discuss recent crises in which Valdés Sosa played a key role: the US allegations of ‘sonic attack’ on diplomats in Havana during the first Trump administration, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Having investigated the US accusation, he provides a scientific rebuttal of the so-called ‘Havana Syndrome’, highlighting the lack of medical evidence - a conclusion subsequently reached by US intelligence agencies – and the political motivations behind them. He describes how during COVID-19 the Neuroscience Centre pivoted to manufacture medical ventilators and swabs in collaboration with international partners, to circumvent US sanctions.
Valdés Sosa describes the suffocating impact of the US blockade on Cuba’s medical science sectors, from obstructing access to equipment, spare parts, databases, and bank transactions, to ‘invisible mechanisms’ to scare off scientific partners. It is a ‘crime against Cuba’, he says, designed to strangle the economy and overthrow a system whose example of successful social policies the US establishment fears.
Looking to the future, we discuss Cuba’s three innovative treatments in the pipeline for Alzheimer’s, a disease that will affect 30 million people globally by 2030. Most advanced is NeuroEPO, which has shown extremely promising results in clinical trials, with very few side effects and should be available to Cuban patients in 2026.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myc4iAXuoWs
Note: This interview is in Spanish, you can check the video in Youtube for English subtitles.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3-LQks3DNA
🎙️🇨🇺 Cuba Analysis podcast did a fascinating interview with Pedro Jorge Velázquez, El Necio, one of #Cuba’s most prominent independent journalists and social media influencers. 💻📲 He speaks about the intense media war and misinformation obscuring Cuba's complex reality, addresses the polemic over democracy and freedom of expression, speaks about the digital battle for the minds of Cuban youth, and debates the future of Cuban socialism. ‘El Necio’ cuts through the noise to show you the real Cuba.
Interview with Irish legend David Hickey, whose extraordinary life bridges three worlds, as Irish surgeon, sports legend, and solidarity activist. Deeply inspired by Cuba’s public healthcare system, Hickey condemns the US blockade as a war crime. He founded the Irish Cuban Medical Association, which shipped medical supplies to Cuba and donated to a kidney disease education centre. Hickey talks about personal battles with cancer and the loss of his Cuban wife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q1m46KjwcY
In July 2025, Helen Yaffe and Nina Blodau sat down with Johana Tablada, then Deputy Director General for the United States at Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs but subsequently appointed Ambassador and Deputy Head of Mission in Mexico.
Tablada describes the key features of US-Cuba relations, past and present, clarifies how the US Blockade functions, explains its economic and human toll, and lists the impacts of Cuba’s inclusion on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism List.