Kingston, 17 December 2024. The former Prime Minister of Jamaica and great friend of Cuba, PJ Patterson, denounced the harmful impact of the blockade imposed by the US against Cuba more than 6 decades ago, exacerbated by the Helms Burton Act, on our country's access to essential supplies and world trade.
Speaking at the Michael Manley Centennial Conference at the Little Theater in Kingston on December 10, Patterson said that nowhere was the Caribbean's determination to chart its own course more clearly demonstrated than in the ‘shattering decision taken in 1972 by four Caribbean heads of independent countries to repudiate the punitive US blockade against Cuba and to establish full diplomatic relations with the island’. He also highlighted Jamaica's constant calls for the lifting of this genocidal policy.
He further acknowledged the island's contribution to the Caribbean's health and education systems and the technical assistance provided in various fields.