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U.S. and Cuban officials have put aside nearly 50 years of frigid relations to hold talks on how to prepare for possible oil contamination from the BP oil spill. Some say oil from the BP spill could reach Cuba’s shores. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from the BBCs Michael Voss, who’s in Havana.

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MARCO WERMAN:  Concerns about the spill in the Gulf extend beyond U.S. shores.  Cuba’s civil defense chief said this week that the country is preparing to protect its shores from the spill.  None of the oil has made it to Cuba, but it could eventually.  The BBC’s Michael Voss has been monitoring the Cuban response in Havana.

MICHAEL VOSS:  Cuba is particularly worried about this because it relies very heavily on tourism and most of its best beaches are on the north coast which is therefore most at risk.  It has no offshore oil drilling of its own right now, so has no expertise in the area.  They have called in the Venezuelans.  Venezuela has sent a team of oil spill experts over here to advise the Cubans what to do.  At the moment it’s sort of watch and wait.  It’s getting residents to keep an eye on areas most at risk and at the moment they’re trying to work out plans for what on earth they are going to do should the oil reach Cuban shores.  What happens is that there is the warm loop current in the Caribbean which comes up from the south and then pushes through the Straits of Florida.  At the moment, the oil spill has not hit that current.

WERMAN: Nobody knows what the likelihood of that happening is yet.

VOSS: Talking to oil spill experts and reading projections coming out the United States, it does appear that there is a high probability that at some point in the next few weeks, but we’re talking weeks, that some of that oil could get into the loop current.

WERMAN: And when Cuba’s civil defense chief says that they’re preparing for the possibility of oil hitting Cuba’s beaches, have they said exactly what they’re doing to prepare?

VOSS: The Cubans are often very sparse on details, particularly when it comes to areas like civil defense.  They do like to plan.  They have a very large civil defense team which also doubles, if you like, as a National Guard.  This remains an island that feels it’s under threat from the United States and has a civil defense team for both natural disasters and possible invasion.  So it’s a disciplined, organized, semi-military operation which involves the local authorities in all the coastal towns, but in terms of booms to collect the oil, they have almost none.  They have very little equipment, very few boats.  They have the limited ability to respond to this.

WERMAN: It sounds like Cuba’s communist culture had this all hands on deck attitude will help to mobilize the population.

VOSS: They do mobilize.  This is a country where when the government says we’ve got to get out and we’ve got to do this, everyone does it.  In hurricanes, for example, in a lot of places the authorities will say it’s time to evacuate and people go I’m not leaving my home, I might get robbed, I’m going to stay and that’s when you get fatalities.  Here in Cuba when the authorities say it’s time to evacuate people do it.  So I think you will see this similar mass mobilization, but even then what can hundreds or even thousands of people do along a coastline with oil washing ashore?

WERMAN: Interestingly, and rather quietly Michael, U.S. and Cuban officials have put aside nearly 50 years of frigid relations to hold working level talks on how to respond to the BP gusher.  Do you know what was discussed?

VOSS: What we understand is that the State Department officials are talking to the Cuban embassy officials there.  It’s not called an embassy there, they’re – - .  And they are keeping them informed about the state of the oil spill, about where it’s going, about efforts to block it and about the currents.  It’s talking at the moment, more about where the oil is going.  Then the big questions come, could, under law, the U.S. for example offer booms or any equipment because it would break the U.S. trade embargo to provide any technical assistance to Cuba.  So then comes an interesting, would President Obama sign a waiver for this sort of thing?  It is just possible that this sort of disaster could help build some bridges between these two old Cold War adversaries.

WERMAN: The BBC’s Michael Voss in Havana will be watching.  Thank you very much.

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