Despite a floundering economy, restrictions on free speech and the incessant hostility of its powerful neighbour to the north, Cuba has developed a considerable research capability — perhaps more so than any other developing country outside southeast Asia. Whatever one thinks of its leader, Fidel Castro, it is worth asking how Cuba did it, and what lessons other countries might draw from it. When Castro came to power in 1959, Cuba had almost no scientific infrastructure. Now it boasts a biotechnology industry that has produced effective drugs and vaccines of its own, a large and fairly influential scientific work-force, and a fledgling pharmaceutical industry with its sights set on export markets. The agricultural sector, in which small farmers benefit from partnerships with agricultural researchers, is also quite successful (see page 322).
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