The 50th regular summit of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) met in St. Kitts and Nevis over Feb. 24-27, amidst significant regional tensions stemming from the dire Cuban humanitarian crisis, the “shifting global order,” and heightened pressures from the U.S. Trump administration’s “Donroe Doctrine” which is making unwanted demands on the small island nations belonging to the group. Invited guest U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the group to unapologetically boast of the U.S.’s success in kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and proclaim that Venezuela, and the region, are better off for it. This occurred while Cuba is suffering the effects of the Trump administration’s vicious cutoff of oil supplies to the island, imposed through an Executive Order on Jan. 29, causing a Gaza-like humanitarian crisis that has horrified the region.
On the evening of Feb. 25, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it would now allow companies “seeking licenses” to resell small quantities of Venezuelan oil to Cuba as long as this doesn’t benefit the government or the military. The effects of the oil blockade have shocked the world.
Would Caribbean leaders stand up to denounce these horrors? The Trump administration has bludgeoned these largely tourist-dependent island nations with a series of destabilizing demands: Sever ties with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, to which many belong; end ties with Cuba’s medical doctors and educational programs on which they’ve relied for decades. Thug Rubio personally revoked U.S. visas of many government officials who didn’t obey. On Feb. 19, a group of eight former Caribbean heads of state from seven countries, issued a statement urging CARICOM leaders to take a bold moral stance at the summit in defense of Cuba and call for an end to the Trump administration’s hideous oil blockade, available in the latest issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
