We owe a duty to Cuba

by DAVID COMMISSIONG, Citizen of the Caribbean Community

OVERTHE PAST 48 HOURS, the truly heart rending message of an ordinary Cuban woman has gone viral all over social media.

It is a message that was issued against the background of the President of the USA radically intensifying the USA’s 64 year old illegal blockade of Cuba by signing an executive order that imposes punitive US tariffs on any country that dares to supply Cuba with oil.

In that piteous yet dignified message, our Cuban sister speaks to us about the elderly Cubans who are “dying prematurely because the blockade prevents the arrival of medications for heart conditions, high blood pressure and diabetes”; the new born 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” that is currently being inflicted on the Cuban people through a deliberate US policy to deprive Cuba of food and energy supplies.

Without a doubt, the current situation in our sister Caribbean nation of Cuba constitutes a severe humanitarian crisis that demands a significant and meaningful response from all people and governments of conscience.

And, in light of the “special relationship” that has existed between Cuba and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) over the past 53 years it most definitely demands a response from the citizens and governments of CARICOM!

Let us recall that it was four of our most revered political leaders – Prime Ministers Eric Williams, Michael Manley, Forbes Burnham and Errol Barrow – who, in the month of October 1972, took the courageous step of defying the mighty USA and the Organization of American States (OAS) and broke the almost ironclad policy of isolation that these two entities had imposed on revolutionary Cuba.

The electrifying message that our four Prime Ministers delivered to the world back then was as follows: “The independent English speaking Caribbean states, exercising their sovereign right to enter into relations with any other sovereign state and pursuing their determination to seek regional solidarity and to achieve meaningful and comprehensive cooperation among all Caribbean countries will seek the early establishment of relations with Cuba….To this end, the independent English-speaking Caribbean states will act together on the basis of agreed principles”.

This, then, became the foundation for the establishment of a “special relationship” between Cuba and CARICOM, as evidenced by the establishment of embassies and the exchange of Ambassadors between Cuba and every single independent CARICOM country, and by Cuba’s extending of a range of invaluable services to the people and nations of CARICOM in the fields of medicine, education, sports, the Arts, agriculture, disaster response, and the list goes on.

And so, 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.

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!

But what about the rest of the international community?

Well, for some 33 years now, all of the major nations of the of the world – with the exception of the USA and Israel – have been voting at the United Nations General Assembly in favour of an annual Resolution entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”.

In the year 2024, exactly 187 nations voted in favour of the Resolution, and only two voted against it – the duo of USA and Israel. In the following year of 2025 the USA was able to add Ukraine and four other dependent states to the opposition camp, but, once again, the vast majority of nations voted to denounce and call for an end to the illegal embargo.

And, very significantly, the nations that are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) – France, China, the United Kingdom and Russia – have all consistently voted in favour of the anti-embargo Resolution.

The time has therefore now come for these major countries to – as they say – “put their money where their mouths are”!

Cuba desperately needs to be supplied with oil and petroleum, and this will require a number of major countries to step up and not be intimidated by the Trump threat of tariffs.

Surely, nations that have been given the special privilege of being “permanent members” of the UNSC and that therefore have a special responsibility to uphold the tenets of international law and the will of the international community, must be called upon to do the right thing and ensure that this new unconscionable effort to intensify the illegal embargo against Cuba does not succeed!

Cuba is now the immediate target, but beyond Cuba is the entire edifice of multilateralism and international law as represented by the United Nations organization that produced some 33 successive Resolutions condemning the US embargo as illegal and demanding its termination.

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.