Cuba concerned over BP spill

Last week we mentioned that Mexican environmental officials have been “closely monitoring” the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and were contemplating taking legal action against BP.

With the possibility that crude oil leaking from the underwater well could reach Cuban shores, authorities on the island are calling for increased action to prevent the oil from spreading. Though a spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section told the Miami Herald that Cuba would be “ready to prevent this kind of oil spill”, some environmentalists are unsure if that would be the case. “The fact that it's Cuba creates a rat's nest of red tape and bureaucracy and inaction on just about anything,'' said senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation in the aforementioned article.

The potential negative impact on Cuban fauna and flora has reportedly forced authorities from that country and the U.S. to undergo "working level" talks. According to the AP those discussions would also “rare moment of cooperation between two countries locked in conflict for more than half a century.”

The supposedly newfound collaboration between Cuba and the U.S. comes days after former leader Fidel Castro blasted multinational firms for what he believes is their global “imposition” of imperialism:

The ecological disaster which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico shows how little can governments do against those who control financial capital," Castro said in his article published by the local media, adding "The hateful tyranny imposed on the world"…

According to the former Cuban leader, these companies are those "who decide the fate of peoples" from the United States and Europe through "the economy in our globalized world."

Image- The Telegraph
Online Sources- Xinhua, Miami Herald, Daily Mail, AP, The Latin Americanist