By *Jomo Thomas
“The goal of broad-based US sanctions should be to deny money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages and bring about hunger and desperation and the overthrow of the government.” Excerpt from a 1962 classified US State Department policy document.
Beginning at 10 a.m. today, Saturday, at Sion Hill, the SVG/Cuba Friendship Society will hold a motorcade to show solidarity with the revolutionary people of Cuba. As many Vincentian patriots as possible should join the motorcade in acknowledgement of the tremendous assistance Cuba has rendered to our people and country.
The Trump regime is strangling Cuba. The embargo, which can only be described as evil, is killing men, women and children. Fuel to generate energy and gas for people to cook with have been blocked from entering Cuba, causing a virtual collapse. Schools, hospitals and industry have been forced to close. Cubans have gone back to cooking with firewood. Garbage has piled up on streets as fuel for trucks to cart it away remains scarce or non-existent. The potential for disease and death looms ominously with each passing day. Critically important medical procedures have been postponed or abandoned.
But this much needs to be clear: Trump and Marco Rubio have only turned the oppressive screws of the American state machine. Every American administration since the revolution’s triumph in 1959 has conspired to overthrow and reverse the significant gains, especially those in education, health and sports. As the lead quote from the secret US policy document from 1962 shows, Washington’s singular plan is to “bring about hunger and desperation and the overthrow of the government”.
Some say President Obama eased the blockage and reopened the US embassy in Havana after decades of closure. This is true, but Obama, recognising that total blockage had failed to achieve its desired result, reestablished diplomatic relations even as his State Department continued with efforts to foment dissatisfaction and dissent intended to create destabilisation and destruction of the revolution.
The show of solidarity with Cuba tomorrow is vitally important. This little revolutionary nation is a model of what the entire world should become. There is no denying that when measured by size of population and gross domestic product, no other country in the world has offered so much to humanity. It is a truism worth repeating: the world calls, and Cuba always answers. Whether in offering assistance in blood to defend the independence of Angola, support for the anti-Apartheid struggle led by Nelson Mandela in South Africa, against genocide of the Palestinians, the fight against the COVID-19 virus in Italy, or the training of tens of thousands of university students from across the world, Cuba has been exemplary. We in SVG have benefitted tremendously from Cuba’s generosity.
For these reasons and more, our collective conscience needs to be moved. Beyond these basic facts, all Vincentians should be outraged by the inhumanity displayed by the Trump regime to our sisters and brothers in Cuba.
Cuba is Gaza without bombs and bullets. At least not yet. But the United States regime, in callous disregard for human life and common decency, has caused and is causing death, destruction and untold human suffering among the 11 million Cuban citizens. Unconscionable is the portrait of President Trump and Secretary Rubio. These are evil men carrying the policies of an evil imperial system. History will not forgive us if we refuse to raise our voices in righteous indignation.
We must all raise our voices against collective punishment. Article 33 of the Geneva Convention (1949) is the bedrock of international human rights law. No protected person may be punished for an offence they have not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited. Cubans, despite the many deprivations of daily life, have refused to turn against their government. The American policy, which is illegal and criminal in intent and execution, is designed to kill as many Cubans as possible to save the people from themselves.
But each independent country has the sovereign right to peaceful coexistence with other states and non-interference in their internal affairs. America’s opposition to Cuba has little to do with its armed revolutionary origins led by Fidel, Raúl, and Che, or the protection of the democratic rights and freedoms of people.
Proof is all around us. Governments that came to power through the democratic vote, such as Mossadegh of Iran (1953), Allende in Chile (1973), Manley in Jamaica (1972 to 1980), Hugo Chavez (2003), Manuel Zelaya in Honduras (2009), or Mohammed Morsi in Egypt (2012), have been overthrown or destabilised, and replaced by savage American military dictatorships. In contrast, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, forever cuddled by the American regimes, do not have a democratic franchise. Israel, the darling of the American political class, is Exhibit A for brutality, torture and genocide.
Inaction in the presence of wrongdoing is not neutral — it is a form of participation, and speaking out is a moral imperative to prevent complicity. Raise your voice for Cuba.
*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
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