Saying thanks and solidarity with Cuba

Let me publicly express my appreciation and thanks to President Diaz-Canel of Cuba, the government and courageous people of that country, the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples of the world (ICAP), as well as all the Vincentian friends of Cuba for the award of the Friendship Medal which I received recently.

Much as I treasure the award, I am conscious that it reflects besides my own contribution to developing friendship and solidarity with the Cuban people, but also helping to spread a deeper understanding of the Cuban Revolution and what it has meant and continues to mean to countries like ours. I therefore would like to dedicate the award especially to those humble Vincentians who had the courage in the early days to seek for the truth about Cuba and the much reviled ”Castros”, and to be prepared to accept the hand of friendship extended by the Cuban Revolution.

For me, it has been a long journey. My affection for Cuba goes back well over six decades. The Cuban Revolution triumphed when I was just into double figures, age-wise. Unfortunately, my thirst for information was only fed by snippets of anti-Cuba information that I could get from occasional glimpses of information in magazines like TIME and READERS DIGEST, aged of course. Yet there was a romanticism about these unconventional Cuban revolutionaries, especially Fidel Castro and ‘Che’ Guevara, which continued to generate a thirst for more information. The ‘Bridge Boys’, a grouping of ex-Grammar School students, helped to popularize the Cuban Revolution with a Carnival band, appropriately named ‘Fidelistas’, in the early sixties. Ironically it was one of the few non-Grammar School members of the grouping, Dennis ‘Prick’ London, who somehow obtained copies of the Cuban newspaper GRANMA,who helped to spread information about Cuba to thirsty folk like me. ‘Prick’ was a government Price Control officer and considering that GRANMA was then legally banned, he must be commended for taking the risk.

By the time that the progressive movement began to blossom in the Caribbean in the late 60s/early 70s, Cuba began to be regarded by Caribbean progressives as almost a Mecca in the region. Then came October 1976, and a brutal exposure to terrorism against the Cuban people. On Wednesday, October 6, a Cubana Airways aircraft, flight# 455, was blown up just as it took off from Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados. All 73 persons aboard were killed, including a number of Guyanese and Koreans. Subsequent investigations revealed that not only were the terrorists armed and financed by the USA, but they were guarded against prosecution under the protection of the US government and its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

We were thrown into a murky world along the slippery slope which exploded in the international terrorism of the late 20th century right up to the terrorism in Gaza, Palestine and Lebanon going on today.

Nine years before, the same CIA had hounded ‘Che” Guevara who had left Cuba to go and pursue his romantic idea of spreading armed revolution throughout Latin America. He was captured in Bolivia and murdered on the orders of the CIA. The murder of the idol of millions of young people the world over, including in the USA, had a galvanizing effect on radicalizing the young people world-wide. In our country, the Cubana bombing helped to trigger the formation of the SVG/Cuba Friendship Society. Through thick and thin, enduring persecution and harassment, the Friendship Society has endured. Its efforts have borne fruit for our country. Thus, when the Cato Government had originally refused to take Cuban aid following the 1979 Soufriere volcanic eruption, it was forced to back down after public protest. The Friends of Cuba also persisted in obtaining scholarships for Vincentian students to study in Cuban universities in 1980, a time when such opportunities were very scarce. That same solidarity with Cuba finally resulted in the far from progressive Mitchell government finally establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. The many benefits are plain for all to see.

Thus, the award to me, is an official recognition of the friendship and solidarity of the Vincentian people, the bonds of which we must keep unbroken. As I thank the Cuban government, I remember the contributions of many over the years, of the late John Horne, later to become a Minister in the Mitchell administration; Dennis ‘Prick’ London and the ‘Bridge Boys’; the ULP government of Prime Minister Gonsalves which took our relations to a new level; the early students who were brave enough to reject the hostility generated then; and all those who have extended friendship and solidarity to Cuba over the years. This includes cultural groups like NAM and DRAGS. Special commendation to the long-standing “soldiers’, starting posthumously with Caspar London, and including early pioneers such as Donald DeRiggs, and especially those who have endured to the present – Jomo Thomas, Erica Morgan-Nicholls, Hayden Huggins, nicknamed ‘Che’, and others too numerous to mention, including family members of mine. My wife Ancelma, and brothers Dexter, a former Ambassador to Cuba, and Poet and writer Conley ‘Chivambo’ Rose. This one’s for you all!

• Renwick Rose is a Social and Political commentator.