Caribbean Split as 17 Nations Back Cuba Embargo at UN, 25 Abstain
Trinidad and Tobago voted against ending the US trade embargo while Guyana and Jamaica abstained, drawing criticism at home and abroad.
By Layla Fontaine ·
Caribbean governments broke ranks this week at the United Nations, where 17 nations voted to keep the US trade embargo on Cuba in place, 25 abstained and 130 voted to lift it.
The Oct. 28 vote exposed a rift across the 15-nation regional bloc. Trinidad and Tobago, long regarded as Washington's closest partner in the Caribbean, cast a no vote. Guyana and Jamaica abstained. St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Dominican Republic were not in the room when the roll was called. Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname voted in favor of ending the embargo.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar defended the no vote in a public post. "We respect the sovereign right of other nations to determine their foreign policy, and we expect that same respect in return," she wrote, adding that "there is nothing romantic or idealistic about dictatorship masked as a revolutionary struggle for freedom." Her cabinet had allowed US troops to use the republic partly as a base for military actions against Venezuela earlier this year.
Jamaica's Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon said no outside party shaped the abstention. "There was no one influencing Jamaica. Jamaica is a sovereign nation and Jamaica made a decision to abstain," she said. Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith said Jamaica did not vote against the measure because it opposes unilateral action under the UN Charter, and did not vote for it because annual support for the resolutions has produced no improvement in conditions and a deepening humanitarian crisis.
Guyanese officials have not commented on their abstention. None of the countries that declined to back Cuba has publicly tied the decision to pressure from the Trump administration, which has denied tourist visas to some applicants. The United States has also imposed visa restrictions on Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica over the number of non-national deportees each has been asked to accept relative to population size. Dominica has received its first batch; Antiguan and US officials are negotiating the size of future arrivals.
Cuba's ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda, Sergio Martínez Gonzalez, addressed supporters of the measure on Wednesday. "The result achieved this year holds special significance for the Cuban people, who suffer the direct and daily effects of the blockade," he said.
