CARICOM: Stand Up and Be Counted

Feb. 20— The following statement was issued by Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana (2011-15), on Feb. 2, 2026. It is addressed to the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which will be held in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis, from February 24-27, 2026.

In another week or so, Heads of government of CARICOM will meet in St. Kitts.

This meeting will take place at a time when one of the Caribbean islands, Cuba, is facing grave dangers, not by any natural disaster, but by the United States government, which is tightening the criminal blockade, which it had imposed on the island more than six decades ago. This time they have imposed a fuel embargo on the island.

Over the years since the Cuban Revolution of 1958, the Cuban people have made tremendous contributions to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean and further afield, in many different aspects of life.

Cuba has become recognised throughout the world for its contribution in health and education. We in Guyana have enjoyed forty-nine years of fruitful cooperation with Cuba’s medical workers. They have treated hundreds of thousands of our people. They have saved countless lives and delivered thousands of babies.

Despite the hardships that the government and people of Cuba have had to contend with, due to the U.S. criminal blockade on its economy and social life, Cuba has educated hundreds of thousands of our people in every profession, medical, engineering, teaching, and other specialities.

Recall too, during the recent COVID pandemic, Cuba developed vaccines which it shared with the whole region and beyond.

Even now as we write this piece, Cuban medical personnel, at great risk to themselves, are providing medical services to Haiti, all free of cost. Other countries are mostly providing lip services to the oppressed peoples of Haiti.

It is impossible to put a price tag on Cuba’s contributions to mankind, particularly the poor and oppressed.

Unfortunately, in these latest attacks on Cuba, Caribbean leaders have chosen to remain quiet. Fear of the U.S. has made most of them extremely scared and seem ready to abandon Cuba in its time of great need.

If CARICOM leaders can muster up the courage to stand by Cuba now, it will mean a lot. Though our countries are generally small and relatively weak, together it will have a great impact.

I can find many more reasons to urge our leaders at this meeting to stand up for principles. However, it is sufficient to appeal to our basic human decency. Call on the U.S.A. to halt the hostility and end the criminal blockade. Condemn the illegality that is on open display and give Cuba solidarity.

Do not give us a reputation of being fearful and ungrateful.

The principled position by [Prime Minister of Barbados] Mia Mottley, in my opinion, both regionally and internationally, in some way, contributed to her unprecedented third consecutive victory in Barbados, and should be emulated by other leaders. The Caribbean now has the opportunity to show solidarity and tangible support with a true friend now in need.

Let this meeting be historic by declaring that we are standing with Cuba!

Former Caribbean National Leaders Issue Strong Statement on the Humanitarian Crisis in Cuba

Feb. 20—Eight former heads of state from seven countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) issued a statement on Feb. 19 appealing to the United States to end its inhuman blockade on deliveries of oil to Cuba. U.S. President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on Jan. 29 forbidding any country from supplying oil to Cuba, an action which is now causing a deepening humanitarian crisis in the island nation. Cuba’s economy relies heavily on imports of foreign oil, and is already weakened by more than six decades of heavy U.S. restrictions on its trade. This current embargo will be a literal death sentence for many in the country.

The statement is being issued ahead of the February 24-27 CARICOM summit in St. Kitts and Nevis to urge other nations to take a bold moral stance in defense of Cuba. It has already been covered broadly in the press across the Caribbean region, reflecting a generalized sentiment. We reprint the statement below in full.

We who have previously served as Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community are perturbed at the deepening humanitarian crisis in Cuba and are impelled to make public this appeal to avert further human destruction.

The Executive Order January 29, 2026 by the United States of America against any nation providing oil to Cuba without the imposition of punitive discriminating tariffs, constitutes economic warfare and inflicts unconscionable suffering upon the Cuban people. The universal principle of dialogue to resolve conflicts and disputes cannot be abandoned on the altar of the mighty powerful waging political vendettas against smaller nations by economic warfare.

The consequences of this horrific fuel blockade are catastrophic and constitute cruel punishment of the 11 million civilians by the strangulation of Cuba’s vital requirements for energy, food, medication, education and basic livelihood.

On December 8, 1972, the Prime Ministers of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago made the bold decision to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba in assertion of our sovereign right to end the hemispheric economic isolation of a neighboring Caribbean State. For over five decades, Cuba has stood in solidarity with the Caribbean through medical brigades, educational scholarships, sports and disaster relief freely given assistance in times of our greatest need and devoid of any request by them for reciprocal support of any kind.

We, during our tenure over the last 33 years, have been inspired and imbued by the courage and foresight of our predecessors at the helm to consistently sponsor and support the Resolutions at UN General Assembly for the termination of the illegal financial and economic embargo by the U.S. against Cuba. That abhorrent embargo was condemned by an overwhelming majority of Member States, including four permanent members of the Security Council. The Global Community cannot remain mute and indolent while a fatal pernicious fuel tourniquet stifles the Cuban economy and suffocates human lives there.

We advocate the imperative of repealing immediately any decree that will result in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Cuba and undermine the tenets of international law.

The foundation of the Caribbean Community rests on the right of each sovereign state to promote regional solidarity and advance comprehensive cooperation between all Caribbean states. The Caricom tradition of solidarity and the exercise of the right to enter and pursue beneficial programs within our regional geographic space have proven invaluable and worthy of perpetuation.

We believe that the Caribbean Citizenry will support any decision by our Leaders to render tangible material support to our brothers and sisters in Cuba at this time of need.

We dare not depart from this path and must now fulfil our sacred duty to appeal for the exercise of our shared humanity in responding to the terror of economic warfare against the Cuban people.

We will never accept the doctrine that might makes right. Economic warfare waged on differences of ideology and political systems is no less odious in our single universe than military invasion anywhere for territorial aggrandizement.

In endorsing the findings of UN Human Rights Experts that this coercive Executive Order is a violation of International Law, we urge the Government of the United States to rescind this inhumane weapon of mass destruction.

We call upon the International Community to provide Cuba with desperately needed humanitarian assistance. We stand with the people of Cuba. We stand as the Zone of Peace. We stand for a shared Caribbean Future.

February 19, 2026

Signers