Latell, Brian 1941–

PERSONAL:

Born May 10, 1941, in NY; married Margaret M. "Jill" Young, May 25, 1968; children: Jerome, John. Education: Georgetown University, B.S.F.S., 1962, M.A., 1965, Ph.D., 1975; also attended Universidad Iberoamericana.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Arlington, VA. Office—Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1800 K St. NW, Washington DC, 20006; fax: 202-775-3199.

CAREER:

Georgetown University, Washington, DC, adjunct professor, beginning 1978; National Intelligence Council, Washington, DC, national intelligence officer for Latin America, 1990-94; Center for the Study of Intelligence, Washington, DC, director, 1994-98; Center for Strategic & International Studies, currently a senior associate. Former publisher and chair of the editorial board of Studies in Intelligence. Military service: U.S. Air Force, 1968-70.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Distinguished Intelligence Medal, Central Intelligence Agency, 1998; Silver Medal, Georgetown University, 1998; Helene M. Boatner Award for studies in intelligence.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Mexico at the Crossroads, Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA), 1986.

Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites, Smithsonian Institution Press (Herndon, VA), 1998.

The Cuban Military and Transition Dynamics, Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL), 2003.

After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Brian Latell is a senior associate in the Center for Strategic & International Studies Americas program. Prior to this, Latell worked for over thirty years as a foreign intelligence officer, having served in the U.S. Air Force and for extended periods as a Latin America specialist at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Intelligence Council. For some time, Latell was an adjunct professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he taught courses on subjects including Cuba and the great powers, the cuban missile crisis, and crises in U.S.-Latin American relations. As a Latin America and Caribbean specialist for the last forty years, Latell has lectured regularly on these subjects and has consulted with presidents, senior government officials, U.S. embassy officers, and regional leaders. On top of all this, Latell has written several books on his area of expertise.

His 2005 book, After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader, draws on his extensive knowledge of Cuba and Fidel Castro. Latell started building his expertise on the country in 1964 when he became a political and leadership analyst at the CIA. At the time, Fidel Castro was one of the world leaders under intense scrutiny. On top of his own personal experience, Latell relies on existing accounts and interviews with Cuban defectors in Miami to paint a picture of Fidel and his brother Raul, Fidel Castro's designated successor, as well as prognosticate about what post-Fidel Cuba will most likely look like—a looming reality given that seventy-nine-year-old Fidel has been ill on and off for the last few years. "Latell has written an engaging psychological profile of the brothers and their odd relationship. He tries to explain how two such apparently different characters could combine into one of the most enduring political partnerships in history," wrote Thomas Catan in his review of the book for the London Times. Despite a few complaints over Latell not covering some topics in the book, the Weekly Standard reviewer Duncan Currie felt that his "prose is highly readable and commendably nuanced, razing many of the enduring myths about modern Cuba…. Brian Latell has done a worthwhile service in demystifying Raul Castro."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

California Bookwatch, December 1, 2006, review of After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader.

Joint Force Quarterly, July 1, 2006, review of After Fidel, p. 92.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2005, review of After Fidel, p. 899.

Library Journal, October 1, 2005, Boyd Childress, review of After Fidel, p. 95.

Military Review, September 1, 2006, Youssef Aboul-Enein, review of After Fidel, p. 119.

Parameters, June 22, 2006, Louis J. Nigro, review of After Fidel, p. 153.

Times (London, England), April 28, 2007, Thomas Catan, review of After Fidel.

Weekly Standard, November 13, 2006, "Cuba Libre; Is There Really Another Castro in Cuba's Future?"

ONLINE

Center for Strategic & International Studies Web site,http://www.csis.org/ (July 1, 2008).