In more recent times, it is more likely on our city streets and in the countryside to see small batches of Venezuelan and Cuban emigres. Their lively chatters among themselves, and Spanish rhythms are unmistakable as is Guyanese hospitality and friendship.
I recently ran into a Cuban immigrant in Guyana. We shook hands and traded “hello”.
“I am sorry for the situation in Cuba,” I told him.
His face suddenly tightened, tears flowing down his cheeks.
It took a while before he spoke. Quickly he regained composure. He smiled and said, “thank you”.
“My mother, she is old and not well. I have a good job so I send money to her. But with the blockade she don’t get to go to the pharmacy for her medicines, or to the shops for food’” he said in a sad, low voice.
I too was momentarily choked with emotions, as I love the kind, friendly and generous Cuban people. I always did, going back to the early 1960s.
Then I embraced with sincere passion at our Lutheran Church the notion of bread with justice, in the poetic words of Jose Marti, “para los pobres de la tierra”.
Today, sixty-five years later, Cubans especially children and the elderly are literally starved of bread because of a calculated policy of the government of the United States of America.
Children are Dying
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, disclosed recently that Cuban children are dying because of the US oil blockade and other sanctions.
Without electrical supplies some 12,000 patients cannot get life-saving surgeries and are without radiotherapy and dialysis treatment.
The United Nations (by an overwhelming majority) repeatedly declared that health is a fundamental part of human rights and a dignified life. The Non-Aligned Movement reaffirmed this in a recent statement on the Cuban health crisis.
In the United States, the Congressional Black Caucus denounced their administration’s oil blockades. According to Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, the blockades have become a threat of starvation.
Cubans are dying, the Black Caucus stated. Like most of the American people the Caucus joined humanity in an Appeal to President Trump: “End the squeeze, let children live, sustain life on the island”.
Our Caribbean Community also issued what has been described as a “dignified and courageous” statement in solidarity with Cuba. In the face of a threat of invasion, and in the name of humanism CARICOM urged the United States to immediately lift all restrictions on our fellow Caribbean citizens. At the least, the US should remove the sanctions on imported fuel.
President Trump could turn the light back on in Cuba. When he does, he would be acclaimed by peace-loving peoples of the world!
Cry for Cuba
For now, the people of the world cry for Cuba.
Though an invasion cannot be ruled out, it is unlikely that this could happen any time soon. Not while the war against Iran continues, and the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and there is an inflationary oil squeeze on the world. Not while the FIFA World Cup is on. Not while the popularity ratings of President Trump are plunging, and the November mid-term elections in the United States do not seem to hold good news for the Republicans.
In the meanwhile, the Cuban people must live without electricity, without cooking gas, without fuel for vehicles, without adequate food and medicines.
The situation would test their endurance, as it has for over sixty years. Understandably they would complain. They might even cry. But in the words of the poet Nicolas Guillen, “you may dim the light but cannot extinguish the soul” of the Cuban people.
Moses V. Nagamootoo
Former Prime Minister and First Vice-President
