host: eduardo gamarra teaches at florida international university, here to talk about the current situations in cuba and haiti. thanks for your time this morning. can we start with cuba? what's the best way to understand what's going on there, particularly in light of the protests last week. guest: it's a very difficult question to answer. cuba's revolution has been a highly subsidized resolution. -- revolution. it was subsidized by the soviet union. they went through a difficult economic time in the 90's. venezuela came around and subsidized cuba. venezuela's oil industry has collapsed. the same time, cuba's tourism industry has largely collapsed primarily because of the pandemic. information is so scarce. we do know that the tourism industry collapsed. cuba lives off cubans residing in the united states. remittances have slowed down dramatically. by virtue of the u.s. sanctions against cuba. there is a combination of factors that have led to cuba's economic situation. there is one more thing that i think is fundamental. that has to do with an opening that occurred under the obama administr

haiti with florida international university's eduardo gamarra. you can be part of the conversation by calling in or by sending a comment by text, tweet, or on facebook. ♪ host: this is the washington journal for july 18. this week, senate democrats will vote on a voting rights bill. this is president biden -- this as president biden called on congress to pass two bills he says would improve voting rights in the united states. over our next hour, we want to hear from you about concerns you may have over that process. also, tell us what you think needs to be done. (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 independents. you can text us if you want, (202) 748-8003. post on our facebook page. if you want to post on twitter, @cspanwj is how you do that. if you want to follow the show on instagram, you can do so @cspanwj also. two recent polls by media companies taking a look at questions when it comes to voting concerns. npr releasing there's -- theirs, asking what concerns you more. the green signifies making sure every

professor eduardo gamarra of florida international university, thank you very much. you very much, judy. ♪ judy: it is an increasingly difficult problem: how to stop or at least slow the rise in gun violence across the country. lisa desjardins talks with one local leader who's joined others at the white house today to tackle this urgent queion. lisa: washington, d.c., is one of five areas nationwide where the bideadministration is launching strike teams to address gun traffickg. like many regions across the country, homicides and gun violence in the city have been on the rise. homicides this year in d.c. havelready surpassed those in 2020. that's after homicides in 2020 rose nearly 20 percent from 2019, that according to data from the d.c. police department. communities of color are disproportionately impacted. according to the kaiser family foundation, in 2019, in washington, d.c., there were about 18 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 white residents, compared to twice as many, 40, per 100,000 black residents. for more, i'm joined by d.c. mayor muriel bowser, a demo

host: eduardo gamarra is our guest. brian in michigan, you are on with our guest. caller: hi.an you hear me? host: yes. go ahead. caller: spend a lot of time in cuba and haiti. the previous caller is correct. here's the deal, we should not be trading with people who are not like-minded with us. we can help out humanitarian ly. the whole deal is corruption, we all know that. we have mainly men at the top of the countries and definitely in the united states of america. this extends out to china. we should not be trading with china. we should not be. they do not match with our ideals. guess what? they are corrupt, we are corrupt. when we bring in think tanks and people who think they are so smart, or not -- host: specifically what do you want to find out about cuba or ask him? caller: i just stated it but i will state it again. we shouldn't be dealing with it. people should have to come here legally. we can help on the margins, but we are no smarter than anyone else. i have been in 26 different countries including cuba. host: ok, caller. we will let our guest respond. guest: agai

. >> woodruff: for more i'm joined by eduardo gamarra, professor of political science at florida internationalversity. he's written widely on haiti, the caribbean, and latin america. professor gamarra thank you so much for talking with us. first of all, what do you make of this new information about the haitian american who says he is a doctor living in florida who is now been arrested? >> well, i think it signifies more than anything else the wide net of conspiracy that really lead to the murder of president moise. and it also involves, obviously, a significant component of the haitian private sector. this man other than saying he is a doctor also claims to be a business person. so that possibly leads to a whole series of other names that will come up in the next few days. that will help us more readily identify who financed this operation. >> you mentioned the haitian private sector, the business community in haiti. what would be the mot of for them to get rid of president moise? >> well, the unfortunate fact is that president moise was unpopular across the spectrum in haiti. but he also ste