WHAT IS THE IEC?

The Instituto de Estudios Cubanos (IEC) is an educational and academic non profit institution that operates an international network of Cuban scholars and intellectuals living in the island as well as in other countries. The feature that makes the IEC a unique Cuban academic institution is having its President and a network of IEC associates in Cuba while the rest of the membership and directors are part of the Cuban Diaspora. This makes the IEC not only an institution at the service of Cubaʼs civil society, but an integral part of Cubaʼs civil society as well.

Founded in 1969, the Instituto de Estudios Cubanos (IEC) was registered federally in 1973 as non profit NGO in Washington DC and has a charity tax except status (23-73-72945 Instituto de Estudios Cubanos) under the IRS 501 C3. The organization is also registered in the State of Florida.

The IEC was founded by a prominent, plural and dedicated group of academics of the Cuban Diaspora who wished to create a forum for a free, informative and objective exchange of ideas about Cuba. The IEC fostered a new wave of independent Cuban studies at a time that most works in the field were tainted by the Cold War and the bilateral conflict between Cuba and the United States. During the last four decades, the IEC has kept itself open to new trends of academic thought and has added to its ranks successive generations of Cuban scholars living in the Island, as well as in other countries of the Americas and Europe.

The IEC has materialized its initial goal of unifying a significant number of Cuban thinkers living in the island and abroad under one sole academic institution and of passing its presidency to a distinguish Cuban living in the island. While legal registration of the IEC in Cuba is not yet possible, it can be said that it is already part of Cuban civil society. In its four decades of existence, the IEC shows a transparent record of being an inclusive, plural, autonomous and fully independent organization and a credible space for dialogue and reconciliation among Cubans of different perspectives and persuasions.