Ahead of next week’s key Caribbean Community leaders’ summit in St. Kitts, a senior Caribbean diplomat pleaded with the region to help cash and fuel-starved Cuba, urging the bloc to take note of how good Cuba has been to the 15-nation bloc over the decades.
David Commissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to CARICOM and a top player in the regional reparations effort, says now is not the time to abandon Cuba, given the storied history of relations with the bloc dating back to 1972 when Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados defied the U.S. and established diplomatic relations with the leftist island.
Cuba is perhaps facing its most challenging crisis to date, ever since the U.S. slapped an economic embargo on the island in the 1960s for daring to go left after overthrowing a US puppet administration that had been running the country in part as an American playground.
“The time has come for us, the people and governments of CARICOM, to do our duty and help our Cuban sisters and brothers to make it through this severe existential crisis,” Commissiong said.
He noted that he was moved to speak out after reading reports of the babies and the elderly “dying prematurely because the blockade prevents the arrival of medications for heart conditions, high blood pressure, and diabetes. The newborn babies that are fighting for their lives because incubators in Cuba have had to be shut down due to a lack of fuel and the terrorism through hunger,” he said.
He argued that the special relationship between CARICOM and Cuba, spanning more than five decades, should at least prompt the region to organize assistance, pointing to significant levels of cooperation in health care, education, and other areas. There are more than 300 Cuban healthcare professionals working in Jamaica alone, and a similar number in Guyana, officials say.
“We all owe a duty to Cuba. Let us ensure that we live up to that duty. And by doing so, we might just find that we would have taken a critical step to preserve the order and safety of the entire human family. Cuba is desperately in need of food, medical supplies, and a range of other essential items, inclusive of solar energy heaters and other appliances to help mitigate the energy crisis. Let us- governments and people together –make the effort to contribute significantly to Cuba in this time of extreme need,” he stated in a letter to media houses this week.
Meanwhile, Cuban Ambassador to Antigua Sergio Manuel Martínez González, this week, accused the Trump administration of invoking “state terrorism” against Cuba as he railed against the U.S., deeming the island a terrorist state.
“The U.S. is utilizing a criminal economic blockade as a pretext to subjugate sovereign nations, kidnapping presidents, and committing acts against people at sea without judicial trial. These measures, he asserted, are designed to drive the Cuban population into a state of desperation to facilitate a takeover by fascist groups in South Florida and return the country to its pre-1959 status as a big casino for U.S. interests,” he told Observer Radio.
He said that more than 5,000 foreign students on the island, including hundreds from the Caribbean, are facing the same hardships as locals, but authorities have no plans to abandon their education or send them home. “The commitment to their education remains a point of national honor, and although the U.S. can blockade oil and food, they will never be able to blockade the principle of humanism,” he said.
