KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Monday ended a three-day official visit to St. Vincent and the Grenadines praising the island and the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping for their continued support to end the decades-old United States trade and economic embargo against the Caribbean Communist country.
“…Cuba does not feel alone. Every day we receive encouragement and support from people and government that are our friends and are expressing our solidarity, and you are an example, the moving example of a small nation that continuously embraces us with gestures…of generosity.
“For this reason, today before this respectful Assembly, I want to profoundly thank the people and government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for their display of solidarity and for the resources you have shared with Cuba at critical times for my country,” Díaz-Canel told a joint sitting of the Parliament.
He also praised Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves for “your firm …support for the Cuban claim to see an end to the U.S. blockade on our country, something that is manifested every year at the United Nations with the unwavering support for a resolution that condemns that cruel policy against us”.
He described it as “an act of bravery by the Caribbean nations” to develop diplomatic relations with Havana 50 years ago, as well as an act marking the beginning “of the end of a policy of isolation some were trying to impose against Cuba.”
Díaz-Canel said it also “paved the way for the re-arrangement by our country with its near and closed by a neighbor, with its Caribbean family that is small in dimension but is huge in dignity.
The United States maintains a comprehensive economic embargo on Cuba. In February 1962, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed an embargo on trade between the United States and Cuba, in response to certain actions taken by the Cuban government, and directed the Departments of Commerce and the Treasury to implement the embargo.
The embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses organized under U.S. law or majority-owned by American citizens, from conducting trade with Cuban interests.
Díaz-Canel is traveling to Barbados on Monday for an official state visit and to participate in the eighth CARICOM-Cuba Summit on Tuesday. The visit to Bridgetown commemorates 50 years of diplomatic relations between Barbados and Cuba, as well as CARICOM-Cuba relations which were established on December 8, 1972, by four CARICOM Member States, namely Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
He said in Bridgetown, “we will celebrate a half a century of Cuba-CARICOM…..at the eighth summit meeting…and we shall be working together in identifying new projects that will be beneficial to our people and the region.
“Fidel (Castro) always charted for us the road of solidarity with sister nations in the Caribbean. Sister nations that we support for just claims for historic reparations for the damages arising from colonialism and slavery.
“Cuba is calling for a fair and preferential treatment …and is also denouncing the serious effects of climate change that are impacting heavily on the development and well-being of our peoples. We have only one option in order to address effectively and successfully the challenges in front of us, and that option is unity and integration amongst our peoples.”
Prime Minister Gonsalves thanked Díaz-Canel for becoming the first Cuban leader to visit Kingstown, saying he is in the land of “Joseph Chatoyer, our heroic and iconic exemplar of the anti-colonial struggle of our people in our ever resolute quest to defend our sovereignty, independence and right to self-determination.”
Gonsalves used his address to urge Washington to end the trade and economic embargo against Havana, saying his small island remains a friend of all nations.
Díaz-Canel said he is pleased with the ongoing bi-lateral relationship with Kingstown despite the fact that over the past three years, Havana has witnessed “an unprecedented flare-up of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of more than 60 years imposed on us by our nighty neighbor with the stated purpose of causing our economy to collapse and cause a social upheaval of such a nature that would lead to the overthrow of the Cuban revolution”.
He said this is being accompanied by a “brutal media campaign…content that is designed to show Cuba before the eyes of the world as a failed state”.
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