Taking the Long View in Cuba

Luces Largas

The science of two nations may be at peace while their politics are at war.

—Joseph Banks, 1796

In 2014, I had the good fortune to teach a class in Cuba called “From Cows to Sea Cows.” In this travel course, we examined the connections between agriculture, marine ecology, and conservation with Patricia González-Díaz, one of Cuba’s leading coral biologists. It was (and still is) a heavy lift for Americans to work in Cuba. University officials were concerned about bringing students to a country that was sanctioned by the U.S. government. All transactions had to be done in cash (mostly still true), and there were no commercial flights between the United States and Cuba (no longer true). But there were benefits to being early adopters. We were working fertile ground that had gone fallow for too long. Although a few organizations were active in marine conservation in Cuba—such as the Environmental Defense Fund, the Cuba Marine Conservation Program at the Ocean Foundation and Ocean Doctor—we felt like trailblazers, joining forces with many of the country’s leading researchers and policymakers as we traveled the country, examining coral reefs, mangroves and small farms. Along the way, we saw a multitude of animals: brightly colored parrotfish, healthy staghorn corals, flamingoes, thousands of migrating red crabs, Cuban pygmy owls, and bee hummingbirds. They reminded me of what a hotspot Cuba is for biodiversity—from whale sharks to manatees, Cuban painted snails, and perhaps the last-remaining ivory-billed woodpeckers.

González-Díaz, who now leads the Centro de Investigáciones Marinas (Center for Marine Research) at the University of Havana, has been fearless in her dedication to U.S.-Cuba collaboration in nature and the environment, driving policy with her luces largas (high beams). (In Cuba, where old American and Soviet cars are still commonplace, one could be forgiven for using an automotive metaphor.) One day, during a torrential rainstorm in Havana, Patricia offered to drive me across town to my hotel in her 1980s Russian Lada. The roads leading up to Rio Almendares were flooded, and many drivers opted to retreat to higher ground. I told Patricia I could wait until the water subsided. Characteristically, she told me “De los cobardes, no se ha escrito nada” (nobody writes about cowards). She crossed the river and drove me home. 

Collaborating with Patricia has been a scientific adventure and a joy, despite the challenges of U.S.-Cuba relations. With our first class of graduate students from the University of Vermont, Duke University and the University of Havana, we traveled to the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), the site of a failed U.S.-backed military invasion after the Cuban Revolution. Along the way, we passed retired ingenios, sugar mills—the brick stacks long gone cold—and billboards marking Castro’s headquarters during the invasion and the last steps of the insurgents before they were captured, killed or reversed course. On the bus, Patricia told me that the first chapter of her dissertation had been rejected from the Bulletin of Marine Science without review. I was shocked to learn that Cubans had not been able to publish in the Bulletin, a leading publication on Caribbean marine science, and other U.S. journals, for decades. It was part of a long history of sanctions and tensions between the two countries. 

Joe Roman and Patricia González-Díaz in the Bay of Pigs

Cuba and the United States have had a complex relationship, dating back at least to the 1890s. The United States allied with Cuba—or intervened—in its war for independence against Spain. The U.S. military then ruled Cuba between 1898 and 1902, when the country was granted formal independence. In 1961, soon after leftist Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Havana, increased sanctions and established a trade embargo in 1962 that is still in place. The tensions between the two countries heightened during the Cold War and have continued even after the collapse of the Soviet Union—despite a brief thaw in 2014 . The embargo and restrictions on travel have shaped the scientific relationship between the two countries since the 1960s.

The United States and Cuba have a long, rich history of conducting joint research—collaboration that slowed, but did not end, during the Cold War and following decades. After a 25-year hiatus, the American Museum of Natural History, for example, conducted an ornithology expedition in Cuba to search for the ivory billed woodpecker in 1985, followed by numerous expeditions and resulting research papers. (Definitive sightings of the woodpecker, alas, remain elusive.) In a letter to President-elect Barack Obama in December 2008, U.S. scientists and conservationists called upon the new administration to remove impediments to scientific exchange and expand environmental cooperation with Cuba. “Greater communication and collaboration among scientists and conservation professionals in the two countries will benefit both the American and Cuban people, and the shared ecosystems to which both nations are so intimately linked,” they wrote. 

In his first term, President Obama made changes in visa and licensing policies that increased collaborations between Cuban and U.S. nongovernmental organizations and researchers, resource managers and conservation organizations. These included a partnership between the Environmental Defense Fund and the Cuban Center for Marine Research on the status of migratory shark populations in the Gulf of Mexico, joint research between Sea to Shore Alliance and the University of Havana on endangered manatees, work by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Cuban park officials on wetlands and endangered species, and efforts by the Ocean Foundation and Cuban experts to study and protect endangered sea turtles. Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the White House also authorized unprecedented discussions between the U.S. Coast Guard and Cuban counterparts to prevent and respond to oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. These early dialogues and collaborations would be critical to improving relations between the two countries during the Obama administration. 

Collaboration picked up after the United States and Cuba began the process of reestablishing diplomatic relations in December 2014. In October 2015, the Cuban government adopted its first National Plan of Action for Sharks and Rays with the help of U.S. scientists and conservationists. The following month, the United States and Cuba signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish sister marine sanctuaries, including the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Guanahacabibes National Park on Cuba’s west coast, the first MOU between the two governments since diplomatic relations were restored. The two countries also released a joint statement to facilitate the exchange of scientific information and increase cooperation to protect marine and coastal ecosystems, reduce disaster risk and prevent oil spills. In January 2017, just a week before Obama left office, the two countries signed a Twinning Agreement, pairing the Ciénaga de Zapata National Park, adjacent to the Bay of Pigs, with the Everglades National Park in the United States and agreeing to better manage both parks, which share similar ecosystems. 

After she was rejected from the Bulletin, Patricia told me that she was depressed, but her academic advisor convinced her to resubmit. The work would eventually appear in Revista de Biología Tropical, published in Costa Rica. I considered writing an op-ed criticizing the U.S. Sanctions Program and journals that had rejected Cuban scientists. But Daniel Whittle, senior attorney and head of the Cuba program at the Environmental Defense Fund, convinced me that a soft approach, contacting the Bulletin directly, might be more effective. Cubans, after all, had been publishing in other U.S. journals for years: some publishers used the presence of international offices, where U.S. laws did not apply, to insulate themselves from the embargo. Others, such as Harvard University, Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh Presses—the last of which prints the multidisciplinary journal Cuban Studies—published peer-reviewed articles by Cubans and not through any foreign subsidiary. If these journals highlighted Cuban research, why couldn’t articles focused on marine ecology be published here as well?

Whittle and colleagues (including myself) did a close read of the guidance from the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), uncovering an exemption to the ban for Cuban authors in academic and research institutions, which was later clarified in a letter to the publisher Elsevier. As long as an author or collaborator is not acting on behalf of the Cuban government, editorial transactions are generally licensed under OFAC 31 C.F.R. 515.577, including “collaborating on the creation and enhancement of written publications” and “substantive editing of written publications.” The rule noted that academic and research institutions and their personnel were not to be included in the definition of “government of Cuba.” Authors from the University of Havana and other Cuban institutions could publish in U.S. journals, and these journals could peer review and edit manuscripts from Cuban authors. (Some restrictions remain on scientists from other nations sanctioned under OFAC. These regulations on peer-reviewed science should be overturned as well.) 

We wrote the Bulletin alerting them of this policy in late 2015, and then sent a follow-up message in January 2016. I soon received an email from the editor, Joe Serafy, that got me up out of my seat. Serafy said that he had forwarded our email to the University of Miami’s general counsel. After review of the OFAC policy and new guidance letter, the University of Miami general counsel gave clearance for the Bulletin to review, edit and publish manuscripts from Cuba. “Many thanks for bringing all of this to our attention,” Serafy concluded. 

And it all could have ended there, except when I mentioned the news to Taylor Ricketts, director of the Gund Institute for Environment at University of Vermont, he asked, “Why don’t you celebrate the change and suggest a special issue?” Cuba, after all, was at a crossroads. The improved relations that helped foster scientific cooperation were also expected to increase tourism, foreign direct investments, and development pressures, with potentially large impacts on coastal and marine ecosystems. Cuba could follow the pathway of many Caribbean nations, with widespread development along the coast, or continue on a more sustainable path, protecting its wildlife and natural resources, and embracing ecotourism as its ethos and brand, much as Costa Rica has done. A special issue focused on marine ecology and conservation could help inform these decisions. 

The editors, when approached, wholeheartedly agreed. “We are very excited about the prospect of an issue devoted to Cuba, given our pre-embargo history,” wrote Serafy. “In fact, a faculty member from the University of Havana, Luis Howell Rivero, was on our first editorial board in 1951.” We asked González-Díaz, who by then had become director of the Center for Marine Research at the University of Havana, to serve as a guest editor and help solicit manuscripts from scientists in Cuba. The special issue on Cuban marine ecology and conservation came out in the Bulletin of Marine Science in October 2018.

The Trump administration reversed many of Obama’s reforms, with restrictions on travel to the United States hitting Cuban scientists especially hard. In 2022, the Biden administration began rolling back several Trump-era policies, including reducing the restrictions on authorized travel. Collaboration between Cuba and the United States continues to reap rewards for both countries and the broader region. Following the Deepwater Horizon spill, opportunities for coordination between the United States and Cuba increased. The Trinational Initiative for Marine Science and Conservation in the Gulf of Mexico and Western Caribbean is aimed at restoring coastal and marine resources shared by Cuba, Mexico, and the United States. It is a step in the right direction, but a truly integrated strategy for managing the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding waters, with strong international projects, has yet to be achieved. The countries might look to the governing structure of the European Union for guidance. Though the political hurdles can be substantial challenge, the conservation benefits make the effort worth pursuing. 

The fate of Cuba’s coastal and marine systems is up to the Cubans, of course, but there is one place where U.S. citizens have a direct say on the island: the Naval Station Guantánamo Bay. The area has been used as a military base and later a prison since it was first opened in 1903 under lease from the Cuban government. Since the Revolution, the Cuban government has considered the U.S. presence in Guantánamo illegal, refusing to cash the annual rent check of $4,085. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), has called for the return of the base to Cuba. 

Many in the United States consider an unconditional withdrawal from the base a nonstarter. Yet as early as the 1970s, the base has been proposed as a bargaining chip to help normalize relations between the United States and Cuba. The Biden Administration has indicated that it wants to close the detention center, if not the base.

Once the military prison at U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay “Gitmo” is closed, the entire base should be repurposed into a state-of-the-art research institution and peace park, a conservation zone to help resolve conflicts between the two countries. In managing Gitmo, the Defense Department has followed regulatory laws such as the Endangered Species Act. Protecting natural environments is also an important part of the military’s mission, in that they provide important, realistic training grounds. It has a thriving population of endangered Cuban iguanas and is home to manatees and coral reefs. 

Gitmo Map.

Indeed, the issues of protecting human rights and wildlife have even been linked in court. In 2003, attorney Tom Wilner attempted to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case of 12 Kuwaiti detainees being held in isolation at Guantánamo without access to a lawyer. He noted that when a Cuban iguana crosses the perimeter fence onto the base it becomes subject to U.S. law, and military personnel face fines of up to $10,000 for harming the animals. If the courts extended jurisdiction to include the iguanas while denying the detainees due process, Wilner argued, they would be providing more safeguards for the reptiles than for humans. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and later ruled in favor of the detainees. Even though Cuba held sovereignty over the land, U.S. jurisdiction over the base guaranteed the foreign nationals the same rights as if they were within the nation’s borders. A focus on biodiversity and human rights would be central to the collaborative research of a new institution and peace park.  

The Cuban iguana, Cycluria nubila, is one of several endangered species at Gitmo. More than 5% of the known population is found on the base. (Drawing by Guantánamo courtroom sketch artist Janet Hamlin, commissioned by artist David Birkin for his project Cyclura nubila, 2014.)

Now associated with terrorism and torture, the new Gitmo would be a place where researchers, policy makers and managers in Cuba, the United States and throughout Latin America could gather to study and address some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, including biodiversity loss and climate change. A first step in returning the land to Cuba, Gitmo 2.0 would be a place to celebrate the hard-earned scientific diplomacy between the two nations. 

Cuba looks toward the future and the past