SELL OIL TO CUBA AND RISK THE RETRIBUTION OF THE WHITE HOUSE
Guyana views Cuba as a friendly country. Diplomatic relations were established by Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Guyana on December 8, 1972. This act of courage broke the isolation of Cuba in the Americas which had been imposed by the US. Guyana should therefore be concerned about what is happening in and to Cuba.
In April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro had visited the United States at the invitation of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. While the trip was enormously successful in the US because of Castro’s personality and charisma, US officials were suspicious of him because of his policies of nationalization and association with leftists, including Che Guevara. Shortly after this visit, the US under President Eisenhower commenced the blockade of Cuba and began to make preparations for invasion which took place in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs under President Kennedy. President Castro had declared that the revolution was socialist.
Cheddi Jagan first visited Cuba in 1960 following which economic ties were established. Political relations between the PPP and the Communist Party of Cuba developed and became close. It remained so despite the loss of office by the PPP in 1964. After the PNC government established diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1972, the PNC and the Communist Party of Cuba also established close relations. The unique situation existed in Guyana whereby the Cuban Communist Party was close friends to both the PPP and PNC which were (and still are) highly antagonistic to each other. By the time the PNC established diplomatic relations with Cuba, Guyana had already begun to go leftward economically by nationalizing the Demerara Bauxite Company in February 1971.
Important relations eventually developed between Guyana and Cuba. As part of this development, Cuba began to send Cuban doctors to Guyana to support our health care system and began to give scholarships to Guyanese students for tertiary education, the overwhelming majority of whom studied medicine. Guyana’s health service owes its existence and development to Cuba. In the meantime, the US blockade of Cuba continued, but with the support of the Soviet Union up to 1989 and its own economic developments then and later, it held its head above water and was able to help other countries, including Guyana, even though severe shortages remained. During President Trump’s first term the very modest relaxation of the economic blockade by President Obama was tightened once again and more sanctions imposed. Now, in President Trump’s second term, regime change is on the agenda.
With this deeply committed relationship between Cuba and Guyana, and the enormous benefits Guyana has gained from its relationship with Cuba, the threat by the US to impose measures to cut off oil supplies to Cuba, is expected to be a matter of grave concern to the Guyana Government. In an article in the New York Times of January 30 headlined: “Trump Moves to Cut Off All Oil to Cuba as U.S. Takes Aim at Its Government,” by Frances Robles, it was said that President Trump intends to impose tariffs on any country that delivers oil to Cuba. The article ends with the following quotation configured for the headline for this article: “Who will sell any oil to Cuba…Who would risk the retribution of the White House?” Already beset by extensive blackouts, the Cuban Revolution now faces its most serious challenge. The survival of Cuba and an independent, socialist state, may not be possible without oil. But the Cuban people have shown a high degree of resilience in the past and may yet do so again.
In the article referred to above, it was stated that the Trump administration’s move to end oil shipments to Cuba is a significant escalation in the decades-long effort by the US to topple the Cuban government. The article refers to President Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency” over the “extraordinary threat” by Cuba for allowing Russia to spy on the US from its territory and its “welcoming” of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. The announcement of additional tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba comes at a time when Cuba is experiencing severe shortages after the supply from Venezuela has ended. The article stated that the US measure leaves Cuba with no alternative of an adequate amount of fuel to prevent its economy from collapsing and triggering a severe humanitarian crisis. This potential consequence was referred to by President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. The Cuban government has accused the US of “economic genocide.” The Cuban Foreign Minister denied that Cuba is a threat. He said: “every day there is new evidence showing that the only threat to peace, security and stability in the region and the only malignant influence is the one exerted by the US government against the peoples and nations of our America.”
The Guyanese people have benefited enormously from the Cuban people and the Cuban Revolution. Will it, either alone or in partnership with Caricom, risk jeopardizing its close relationship with the US, which is vital if it is to maintain the US’s support against Venezuela, by supporting Cuba?
