GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—The 15 member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping will observe the 52nd anniversary of diplomatic relations with Cuba, reiterating its long-standing call for the United States to lift the decades-old economic and trade embargo on Havana.
On August 3, 1962, the US Congress amended the Foreign Assistance Act to prohibit aid to any country that assists Cuba. On September 7, 1962, Washington formally expanded the Cuban embargo to include all Cuban trade except for the non-subsidized sale of food and medicines.
In a message marking more than half a century of diplomatic relations with Cuba, CARICOM Chairman and Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Cuba has provided “very substantial levels of assistance, despite the deleterious effects of the economic, trade and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against our sister Caribbean country.
“ CARICOM also reiterates its call for the total lifting of this anachronistic embargo,” Mitchell said, as he recalled the “symbolic and bold act of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago on 8 December 1972, of establishing diplomatic ties with Cuba despite prevailing global political tensions, thereby ushering an exemplary partnership”.
Mitchell said that since “that historic day, the CARICOM-Cuba relationship has deepened and matured, exemplifying South-South cooperation and a point of great honor for both CARICOM and Cuba.
“Indeed, the member states of the Community highly value our cooperation, which has been of immense assistance, bilaterally and regionally, particularly about human capacity building and the provision of health care, critical inputs to improving the welfare of our people.”
Mitchell said he is “particularly proud that this friendship, solidarity, and cooperation has withstood the test of time,” expressing the region’s solidarity with Cuba, adversely affected by recent hurricanes and an earthquake.
“These natural disasters have caused significant damage to Cuba’s infrastructure and tested the resilience of its government and people,” Mitchell said, adding that CARICOM was looking “forward to deepened friendship, cooperation and solidarity that characterize our unique partnership.”
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