David Remnick

You wrote a terrific biography of Che Guevara.

And you've made two especially recent trips to Cuba, one in May and one in the wake of the invasion of Venezuela much more recently.

Just give me a sense of what it's like to walk around and be in Havana and other cities and towns in Cuba compared to previous trips.

What's it like?

When the Soviet Union collapsed,

there was a period that Cuba really struggled because they had been subsidized and propped up by the Soviet government.

And then the Venezuelans stepped into the breach and there was a relationship there that helped Cuba get from day to day.

That's right.

How is Cuba getting by at all?

What's the economy?

The whole electric grid went down in Cuba for how long?

John Lee, what does somebody like Marco Rubio, who seems so influential when it comes to Cuba policy and the Trump administration—

What does he want?

What are these negotiations with the Cubans about?

Is there any way in the world you envision a better future?

What would have to happen?

But that means that's the end of the ideology, which is already at the end of its rope.

Yes, it is.

But it's also the end of the Communist Party, inevitably, no?

John Lee Anderson, thanks so much.