Caribbean split on UN vote to end US embargo against Cuba
St Kitts and Nevis was among seven CARICOM states that voted to end the embargo, while Trinidad and Tobago voted against and Guyana, Jamaica and Haiti abstained.
UNITED NATIONS, New York. A row has broken out in the Caribbean over the way some regional states voted at the United Nations this week on a resolution calling for an end to the decades-old US embargo against Cuba.
Trinidad and Tobago voted against the resolution, while Guyana, Jamaica and Haiti abstained. The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname voted in favour. Delegations from St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica were not in the room when the roll was called.
None of the countries that voted against, abstained or were absent has acknowledged pressure from the Trump administration, including the denial of tourist visas, as a reason. Cuba has trained thousands of regional doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers and marine biologists over the decades, largely for free.
Trinidad unapologetic
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, whose cabinet earlier this year allowed US troops to use Trinidad and Tobago partly as a base for military action against Venezuela, defended the no vote.
"Those persons in Trinidad and Tobago who support dictatorship in Cuba would never support it in our own country," she said in a post. "Our position is against military dictatorship and supportive of the Cuban people's right to democratically elect a government of their choice."
Jamaica denies outside influence
Jamaica's Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon said: "There was no one influencing Jamaica. Jamaica is a sovereign nation and Jamaica made a decision to abstain."
Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith said Jamaica did not vote against because it does not support unilateral action, and did not vote for because repeating the same resolution each year had brought no improvement and the humanitarian crisis had deepened.
Guyanese officials have not commented.
Visa pressure
The US has imposed severe visa restrictions on Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica as it pressed them and others to accept large numbers of non-national deportees. Dominica has received its first batch, while Antigua is negotiating with Washington over numbers.
Cuba's Ambassador to Antigua, Sergio Martínez Gonzalez, thanked supporters, saying the result "holds special significance for the Cuban people, who suffer the direct and daily effects of the blockade".
Overall, 130 nations voted against the embargo, 17 voted against the resolution and 25 abstained.
