Conquering Nature: The Environmental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba

Abstract

In recent years, historians of Latin America have begun to integrate environmental concerns into their scholarship. This scholarship, however, has primarily focused on Brazil and Mexico, and has ignored other countries such as Cuba. Díaz-Briquets and Pérez-López seek to fill this void, and do so admirably. The study is valuable because it builds on scientific studies of the Cuban environment and addresses the interaction between environment, people, public health, and economic priorities. It will interest environmental policymakers and Latin American historians. The study covers developments in the post-1959 period, but also relates more recent problems to Cuba’s earlier phase of capitalist development. Obtaining reliable information on Cuba is difficult, but the authors gather evidence by looking at scientific, environmental, and economic reports from inside and outside Cuba, and by interviewing Cuban scientists who left Cuba.This study makes for sober reading. Far from an environmental paradise, Cuba under socialism has witnessed unprecedented ecological destruction. This might seem slightly paradoxical. Cuba under Castro did not display enormous population growth, poverty, or unequal access to resources, as was the case in other Latin American countries. Such conditions have often been associated with environmental deterioration in Latin America. “Environmental deterioration,” write the authors, “was not supposed to occur under socialism. According to conventional Marxist-Leninist dogma, environmental deterioration was precipitated by the logic of capitalism and its relentless pursuit of profits. . . . In reality the socialist environment record proved to be . . . far different from the utopian view” (p. 1).Far different indeed. According to the authors, Fidel Castro and misguided Cuban policymakers, both driven by a mania for maximizing production, often implemented shortsighted or destructive ecological programs. In the agricultural sector, Cuban soils were damaged as a result of extensive irrigation, which was unaccompanied by proper drainage. There was widespread use of heavy agricultural equipment, leading to soil compaction. Finally, Cuban agriculture relied excessively upon chemical inputs, which contributed to soil acidification and contamination of potable water supplies. This environmental deterioration did not occur not in a country with an inequitable land tenure system but in Cuba where during the first 30 years of the revolution most of the land fell under state control.Despite some rather modest success with its reforestation program, the Cuban government has not performed well in other environmental policy areas. Cuba pursued misguided water policies associated with overpumping of underground waters and an extensive dam construction program, which lead to salinization of aquifiers and degradation of coastal areas. During more than three decades of socialist industrial development, industrial pollution has been systematically discharged into the soil, the atmosphere, and the water. On the more local level, the government has failed to deal with air, water, and industrial pollution in Havana. Particularly disturbing is a chapter on Cuba’s nuclear energy program and safety concerns surrounding Cuba’s infamous Juraguá nuclear plant. Sadly, though Cuba has laws on the books to protect the environment, these laws are rarely enforced.Though the authorities share some blame for environmental mistakes, the authors also show that Cuba inherited many ecological problems from before the revolution. Cuba has had to reconcile economic improvement with environmental concerns, and “it would have been surprising if Cuba . . . could have escaped unscathed from the systemic environmental failings of socialism” (p. 2). In recent years, Cuba has not been able to pay for agricultural inputs, which has benefited the environment but has not led to increased food production. A transition to a capitalist economy, the authors conclude, is unlikely to improve on socialism’s poor environmental track record, unless a proper regulatory framework is put in place.