(Antigua Newsroom) – Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries have told the United States that its decades-old trade and economic embargo against Cuba has “run its course” and should now be lifted.
In a July 26 letter sent to President Joe Biden, Caricom chairman and Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, said that “strong and mutually beneficial relations” have been developed between Cuba and the Caribbean countries over a 49 year period and Caricom regards “Cuba and its people as a valuable and respected member of our family of Caribbean nations”.
Browne said that Caricom has been, and remains troubled by the circumstances in Cuba where there is a shortage of food, medicines and other basic needs “that results, significantly, from the long-standing US trade embargo and the more recent punitive measures imposed by the previous US administrations”.
Browne said that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has “exacerbated this deteriorating humanitarian situation.
“All of this together with the threats to its national security, have contributed to placing Cuba in conditions of abnormality in which normal criteria and expectations cannot be applied,” Browne wrote.
The Caricom chairman said that the US trade and economic embargo against Cuba has been in place for 61 years.
