Alexander Scott speaks with rural sociologist Andrew Smolski about U.S. imperialism and the long history of empire in Cuban development. Drawing on Smolski's archival research and his work on Cuban agriculture, the conversation traces how imperialism has shaped Cuba's capacity to develop across five centuries — from Spanish colonialism, the Haitian Revolution, and the rise of the sugar-slavery complex, through U.S. occupation and the Platt Amendment era, to a blockade now in its seventh decade — and asks what it would mean for development research to treat imperialism as a condition of development rather than mere background.

Andrew Smolski is an assistant professor of rural sociology in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education at The Pennsylvania State University, and a member of the Latin American Perspectives editorial collective.

Further reading from our guest:

"Interrogating Structural Conditions for Agricultural Production: A Comparative-Historical Study of Cuban Incorporation, Delinking, and Exile," Journal of World-Systems Research 28(2), 2022 (open access):
https://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/jwsr/article/view/1117

The Agrarian Question as an Ecological Question in Latin America, special issue of Latin American Perspectives (January 2024), co-edited with Daniela García Grandón and Joana Salém Vasconcelos:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0094582X241252111

Violence, Capital Accumulation, and Resistance in Contemporary Latin America, special issue of Latin American Perspectives (January 2021), co-edited with Matthew Lorenzen:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20975005

"Class Struggle and Violence in Latin American Cities," Latin American Perspectives 48(1):
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0094582X19860470

For more information about Latin American Perspectives, our podcasts, and guests, please contact lap.outreach@gmail.com.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your preferred listening platform.

Bryce Henson joins the pod to discuss his book Emergent Quilombos: Black Life and Hip Hop in Brazil (University of Texas Press, 2023). Drawing on ethnographic research in Salvador da Bahia, Henson explores Brazilian hip hop as a diasporic cultural and political movement rooted in Black radical traditions, anti-racist struggle, and collective community formation. Throughout the conversation, the group discusses the historical significance of quilombos in Brazil, the relationship between Blackness and political struggle, the role of hip hop as a form of "quilombismo," and the intersections of race, class, gender, and diaspora in contemporary Brazil.

Bryce Henson is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Texas A&M University, with affiliations in Africana Studies and the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute. He is also an affiliated researcher with the Pós-Afro Program at the Universidade Federal da Bahia and serves as Associate Editor for Transforming Anthropology.

Emergent Quilombos: Black Life and Hip Hop in Brazil can be purchased here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477327986/

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3KnR3IBULZ9aAesr8pY3Ov?si=wp_fX5SwSnigAXai5nWT6Q

A journal for discussion and debate on the political economy of capitalism, imperialism, and socialism in the Americas.

https://latinamericanperspectives.com/

In this episode of the Latin American Perspectives Podcast, Alexander Scott speaks with historian and political scientist Steve Ellner about the changing nature of U.S. imperialism and the escalating political crisis in Venezuela.

Drawing on Ellner's recent work, the conversation examines sanctions, economic warfare, "hyper-imperialism," the Venezuelan opposition, and the broader geopolitical tensions shaping Latin America today.

Topics discussed include:

• Sanctions as a form of warfare
• Economic coercion and financial blockades
• U.S. policy toward Venezuela
• María Corina Machado and the Venezuelan far right
• Debates on the left surrounding anti-imperialism and democracy
• The global implications of a new phase of U.S. power

Steve Ellner is a historian and political scientist who taught for over two decades at the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela. He is Associate Managing Editor of Latin American Perspectives and the author of numerous books and articles on Venezuelan politics, the Latin American left, and the Chávez era.

• CounterPunch — "U.S. Imperialism Enters a New Stage"
  https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/21/u-s-imperialism-enters-a-new-stage/
• Jacobin — "Trump, Latin America, and the Left Opposition"
  https://jacobin.com/2025/11/trump-latin-america-left-opposition
• Venezuelanalysis Author Page
  https://venezuelanalysis.com/guest-author/steve-ellner/
• Venezuela Solidarity Network — María Corina Machado & Venezuela
  https://www.venezuelasolidaritynetwork.org/mcm_venezuela