‘The economic, commercial and financial blockade is the central element that has defined the policy of the United States towards Cuba for over 60 years. The effects of this undeclared war on the economy, society, daily life and dreams of progress of over 11 million Cubans have been without a single day’s respite’, was the opening statement of Cuba’s Report on Resolution 77/7 of the United Nations General Assembly in 2023, entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba’’
It is also an incontrovertible fact, that over 80% of our sister country’s current population has never experienced life without this illegal, criminal, brutal and genocidal ‘albatross’ around their necks. Its unconditional removal by the empire, therefore remains at the centre of Cuba and progressive humanity efforts.
The belated action by outgoing US president Joeseph Biden in removing Cuba from this spurious list of State Sponsor of Terrorism,( a designation that more accurately sums up the empire’s conduct) should therefore be seen as betrayal of an election promise that he made in 2020 to the American people, regarding following in the foot-steps of former president Barak Obama in his rapprochement effort towards Cuba, with a complete embrace of the incoming president Trump’ maximum pressure’ tactic during his first term, against our courageous brothers and sisters living in the greater Antilles’.
Furthermore, as much as we welcome president Biden’s action as an important step, we should not be fooled for a minute, in seeing this move as one that came from the proverbial ‘goodness of his heart’ but one which was in large part due to unrelenting and uncompromising heroic resistance of the Cuban people, buttressed by the support of the international progressive community who rallied against and withstood the complete destabilizing arsenal of empire.
Importantly too, is the fact that president Biden like the previous occupants of the White House, would be very concerned about his legacy and its fair to assume that whatever positive elements that not only the American people but also the rest of the world had of him, has been gravely undermined by his total complicity with the genocidal war, which is being prosecuted by the apartheid Zionist regime led by international war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, against the heroic Palestinian people.
The Jamaica solidarity movement with Cuba will continue to render our unconditional support alongside our counterparts in the international progressive movement, to the heirs and heiress of Marti, Grajales, Fidel, Raul, Diaz Canel and all the unsung heroes and heroines who have pointed the way, that another world is indeed possible that trumps disaster capitalism.
Kingston, 16 January 2025