Embargoing Science: US Policy toward Cuba and Scientific Collaboration

AIBS Washington Watch, August 2001

Sarah DeWeerdt

When naturalist Don Felipe Poey y Aloy made systematic studies of fish species in the waters around Cuba in the 1800s, he deposited many of his specimens in US institutions, such as the Smithsonian and Harvard University. His work, which laid the foundations of natural history research in Cuba, also helped initiate a tradition of close collaboration between scientists in the United States and Cuba. That tradition of collaboration has been more complicated since the imposition of the US embargo against Cuba nearly 40 years ago. Although regulations exempt scientific activity from the embargo, in practice, many scientists say, US policy toward Cuba hampers scientific collaboration between the two countries-and thus impedes scientific progress.

Under the terms of the embargo, US residents are prohibited from traveling to Cuba-or more precisely, spending money there-unless they obtain a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Current regulations allow scientists to travel to Cuba for professional reasons (for example, to conduct research or attend a scientific conference) with a general license. A general license requires no advance paperwork or approval. US customs agents may ask for evidence of the purpose of the trip, however, so self-certifying travelers, as they are known in OFAC lingo, would be well advised to keep proof of their attendance at a scientific meeting or their participation in a research project in Cuba. Michael Smith, Caribbean Research Fellow at Conservation International, likens the process to filing taxes: "You want to make sure your 1040 is correct, but no one checks up on you beforehand."

These relatively streamlined procedures have been in place since 1999, when the Clinton administration announced a new policy to expand people-to-people contacts-such as scientific exchanges-between the United States and Cuba. Scientific collaboration between the two countries continues to enjoy broad bipartisan support in Washington. Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI), who visited Cuba in April as part of a delegation organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says that scientific collaboration is "one area that's reasonable" for contact with Cuba. "There are some things we can learn from them, and certainly many things they can learn from the scientific effort in this country."

Many researchers agree. Michael Smith, for example, set up the Cuba-US Scientific Exchange program more than a decade ago to foster collaboration between scientists in the two countries. Smith, who has visited Cuba about 60 times since 1989, says that under the current regulations "anything legitimate a scientific organization wants to do in Cuba is possible." Yet other scientists, particularly less-seasoned travelers to Cuba, believe that the regulations can be unduly onerous. For example, not all scientific travelers qualify for a general license. Scientists who want to attend a conference related to biotechnological products, as well as all students traveling to Cuba for scientific research, must apply to OFAC for a specific license. Getting approval for such applications, which must include a detailed explanation of the reason for the proposed trip and a complete schedule of activities, can take up to three months.

"The current US policy does not promote-in fact, it obstructs-collaboration," says Kenneth Bridges, director of the Joint Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemic Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Bridges, who visited Cuba for the first time as part of a delegation to a medical conference earlier this year, calls the procedures necessary for an individual scientist to travel to the island "daunting." Scientists who work for the US government report even more hurdles in getting to Cuba, ranging from longer waits for license approval to restrictions on their participation in professional activities (for example, a government scientist may be allowed to attend a conference in Cuba but barred from presenting a lecture or paper there).

Despite all the challenges, a growing number of scientists are attending conferences in Cuba, pursuing research on the island, and setting up collaborations with Cuban scientists. The Cuba-US Scientific Exchange has organized joint field expeditions-including research cruises in both US and Cuban waters-and Cuban scientists have made hundreds of visits to the United States to study reference specimens that Felipe Poey y Aloy and other naturalists brought to US collections. Other organizations with ongoing scientific collaboration programs are the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Botanical Garden, Conservation International, the Inter-American Institute for Global Climate Change Research, and the University of South Florida.

"The US and Cuba should be the closest of scientific partners if you look at it in a natural way," says Michael Smith. And the two countries have more in common than biogeography. They both have substantial scientific capacity in many areas-Cuban scientists, like their counterparts in the United States, are well-educated and highly regarded in the international scientific community. Yet successful collaboration-indeed, all good science-requires openness, transparency, and the free flow of information and ideas. As Bruce Collette of the National Marine Fisheries Service Systematics Laboratory puts it, "You can't embargo science."

Sarah DeWeerdt (e-mail: selkie@eskimo.com) is a freelance writer working out of Seattle.


Editor's note: On 13 July, President George W. Bush said he would "escalate existing sanctions against Cuba, including tighter restrictions on American travel there" (Karen de Young, "Bush Continues a Clinton Policy on Cuba," Washington Post, 17 July 2001, p. A10). Whether this escalation will affect scientific exchanges remains to be seen.

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