Armando Castanedo Abay is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Havana in Cuba. He is the author of Mediacion: Alternativa Para La Resolucion de Conflictos.
Prof. Castanedo began teaching mediation at the Universidad de La Habana law faculty in 1994 and has since established a mediation clinic at the University. His mediators are not exclusively law students or practicing attorneys -- in fact the majority have had mental health training. The key for Castanedo, as his book demonstrates, is the ability of mediators, whatever their background, to understand the dynamics of conflict, to restructure communication channels of disputing parties and to prompt an exchange information so that the parties themselves end their dispute with satisfaction.
