SOS for Cuba: SVG Cuba Friendship Society reactivates Bank Account to receive financial aid for Cuba

by Dexter Rose

Cuba was plunged into total darkness this week when an outdated, overworked national electricity grid failed. Again.

That created quite a bit of nervousness as it coincided with an announcement by US president Donald Trump, that he would “take Cuba” and “do what he wants” with it.

Meanwhile, from within Cuba, President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermúdez repeated on March 13, his government’s oft stated willingness to engage with the United States of America to “seek solutions to bilateral differences”. This was followed on March 16, 2026 by Cuba’s Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX) and Deputy Prime Minister a day later who announced that the Cuban government had passed laws to allow Cubans living in the United States or outside of Cuba generally, to invest in the Cuban economy or to set up dollar accounts in Cuban banks.

This was a major initiative and responded to many of the calls made for years by Cubans resident overseas. But as the trade minister commented, the US would, in turn, need to adjust its laws which currently prohibit their citizens from investing in Cuba. This is a dance of two lovers who had fallen out.

Trump’s policy of starving the Cuban state of petroleum and threatening sanctions on countries which send crude to Cuba continue to create undue hardships for the Cuban people. Tired of the effects of long hours without electricity, and without being able to refrigerate food, people have been openly protesting by beating pots and pans in the streets across Cuba. The most extreme case was the burning of the offices of the Cuban Communist Party recently in the Eastern town of Moron.

Meanwhile, outside of Cuba, many nations and organizations have been responding with humanitarian gestures to help the Cuban people. The government of Mexico, the only nation which never broke relations with the Cuban revolution, has continued to provide shipments of food and materials. But, under the threat of US sanctions, have had to curtail its exports of petroleum to Cuba.

The US now controls the sale of petroleum from Venezuela since its kidnapping and jailing of President Nicholas Maduro and therefore petroleum supplies from that traditional source have been cut to Cuba too.

At the moment there is the Nuestra (Our) América Convoy (formerly “Nuestra América Flotilla”) which is on an international solidarity mission aiming to deliver over 20 tonnes of food, medical supplies, and solar equipment to Cuba. This initiative is led by groups such as Progressive International, and aims to deliver aid via air and sea to bypass U.S. sanctions during this most severe Cuban energy/humanitarian crisis.

This convoy began to arrive in Havana since Wednesday of this week. Its participants include a range of persons including journalists, activists and politicians from a host of nations around the world including Mexico, the UK, Ireland and Italy.

Interestingly, at the same time, there are Cuban exile groups from Miami who plan to meet in that city on March 21, 2026 as the international convoy arrives in Cuba to protest and demand of the US government that they be allowed to send supplies to their homeland. The very terms of the much spoken about economic and financial blockade of Cuba imposed 65 years ago by the US, currently prohibits this without permission.

And what of responses to Cuba’s humanitarian crisis from CARICOM? Since the most recent CARICOM Summit held in St Kitts & Nevis, CARICOM chairman Dr Terrance Drew, had announced the intention of sending humanitarian aid to Cuba. This, however, seems to have remained at the level of just an ideal, not yet concretized.

Locally, however, the SVG Cuba Friendship Society has announced that it is reactivating its bank account which has been used in the past to collect funds for humanitarian assistance to Cuba during periods of crisis in Cuba. This account was used after hurricanes hit Cuba, and during the COVID-19 pandemic when funds were collected and equipment bought and sent to Cuba.

This call by the local Friendship Society is a humanitarian plea to all Vincentians who have benefitted directly or indirectly from Cuba’s generosity over the years. This is not a time for partisan political bickering but for taking a principled and unified stance to come to the rescue of our brothers and sisters in Cuba.

Cuba welcomed, educated and sheltered our sons and daughters while they became professionals who today serve SVG. Now that Cuba is feeling the squeeze, victims of an economic deprivation and strangulation imposed by the United States, it is our time to step forward for the people of this nation.

Persons willing to contribute to this “Assist Cuba” initiative can deposit monetary contributions to the SVG Cuba Friendship Society’s bank account at:

Bank of St.Vincent and the Grenadines, account number 130016

Other organizations are being encouraged to utilize this portal to collect funds to be sent onward to Cuba, which has stood by SVG for so many years and in so many ways.