KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC -A former speaker of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines parliament, Jomo Sanga Thomas, says the world and indeed the Caribbean, owes Cuba a “massive debt of gratitude” as the country counters the latest actions of the United States that are fuelling a humanitarian crisis in that Caribbean country.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that economic reforms could offer the Cuban government a path to easing US pressure, even as the Donald Trump administration’s oil blockade pushes the island deeper into crisis.
But Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who moved to the United States in 1956, declined to spell out specific conditions but suggested the regime must allow Cubans greater economic freedom, not just political reforms, if it wants relief from Washington’s tightening grip.
Last week, two Mexican ships bearing humanitarian aid docked in the harbour of Cuba’s capital Havana, with President Claudia Sheinbaum promising that more help was on the way.
The Mexican president insisted that maintaining Cuba’s sovereignty would be a top priority.
Since January, the Trump administration has sought to cut off the oil supplies that power Cuba’s energy grid and other critical infrastructure.
Writing in his weekly column, Thomas, who is also an attorney and social commentator, noted that no other country and its people in the last 100 years have done more for humanity than that proud Caribbean jewel, which sits 90 miles south of the most cruel empire in world history.
He said the Cuban people are being starved to death and subjected to submission by the United States and Europe, and the entire world cowers in fear as Washington blocks all fuel from entering the country.
“It is an American strategy that began with plots and assassination attempts against Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, and the strangulation, embargo, and blockage of essential goods, food, and medicine that continues nonstop for 65 years.
“That revolutionary Cuba has survived this veritable war on its independence and sovereignty is a tribute to the strength of purpose, dignity, unity, nationalism, and political and ideological consciousness of its people. But American imperialism is unforgiving and unrelenting. How dare the Cuban leadership defy the mighty America?”
Thomas said that with “the unlawful kidnapping of President Maduro of Venezuela and the dictates to leaders in Caracas, Mexico, Jamaica, and other states that they can’t sell gas and fuel to Havana, the American regime is betting that this time around, Cuba will not only be on the ropes.
“The hope is that the economy will grind to a halt, factories, hospitals, and other essential institutions that sustain modern civilised society will collapse, and the Cuban revolution will finally be subdued and defeated.”
Thomas noted that over the last 50 years, “whenever the world called, Cuba answered” recalling that during the COVID pandemic from 2020 to 2023, “when the world was shut down in a massive experiment of thought control and human behaviour, little Cuba developed three vaccines which it shared with people in the Global South, sent hundreds of doctors to industrialised Italy and other distressed corners of the earth to soothe hearts and save lives.
“For us in the Caribbean, Cuban assistance has been crucial in creating an all-important professional class. Thousands of people from Jamaica in the north to Guyana and Suriname in the south owe their training and professional careers to the selfless assistance of Cuba’s revolutionary government.
“Many of our doctors, engineers, economists, architects, and dentists owe their training and education to Cuba. Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the story is the same,” Thomas wrote, adding, “no other country in modern history has been so generous in offering from its modest resources to the rest of the world.
“Yet the world stands askance as the Trump regime escalates its murderous regime change policies against Cuba. Where is the conscience of the world? How could this inhumanity, aggression, and assault against international law, the United Nations charter, and universally recognised civilised norms be allowed to continue in the third decade of the 21st century?
“Why are we so shamelessly abandoning our sovereignty? How is it possible that we can agree to the dictates of the hegemon to the north to take refugees from its shores, but specify that under no conditions would we take our kin from Haiti?”
Thomas questioned how St. Lucia benefits when Prime Minister Philip J Pierre publicly announces that geo-political dictates demand that St. Lucia’s young people can no longer study in Cuba?
“It is sadly nauseating to witness a Cuban vessel leaving a Jamaican port empty because the Jamaican authorities refused to facilitate the sale of liquified petroleum gas (LPG). PM Holness needs his head examined. Cuba has offered so much to its Jamaican neighbour, less than 150 miles across the sea.
“And as if all of this bad news is not depressing enough, PM Dr. Godwin Friday announced during his budget address…plans to phase out the use of Cuban district medical officers in three years.”
Thomas also noted that, one day after Dr. Friday’s announcement, Guyana disclosed that it had ended its bilateral medical cooperation agreement with Cuba, stating that the agreement was no longer necessary because Cuban doctors were now coming to Guyana independently to seek employment.
“Both countries offered contrasting reasons, but the decisions reek of American pressures and the regional governments’ abandonment of their sovereign rights.
“While the language barrier is a real problem, developing countries such as ours must avoid cutting off our noses to spite our faces,” Thomas said, noting that as of February 10, 2026, Cuban specialists fill the void in orthopaedics, anaesthesiology, endocrinology, internal medicine, pathology, oncology, cardiology, biomedical engineering, nutrition, and engineering.
“Three years is an exceedingly short time within which to train and find replacements for these Cuban medical professionals. It takes four to five years to earn an undergraduate degree in any of these areas.
“The world has changed and is changing for the worse. We risk the chance of becoming vassals to a president who derisively labelled us “shit hole countries,” said Thomas, who served as speaker from 2015-2020.
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