Former CARICOM leaders rebuke Kamla over Cuba ‘economic warfare’ clash

Feb 24, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – A simmering regional dispute over US sanction against Cuba has escalated with former Caribbean Community leaders firing back at T&T Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, rejecting her claim of irony in their call for the United States to rescind what they describe as an “inhumane weapon of mass destruction” against that country.

In a strongly worded statement on Monday, the former heads of government insisted there is “no contradiction” in their appeal to Washington to reverse recent measures that threaten to intensify Cuba’s fuel crisis. The original declaration, signed by eight ex-leaders and now endorsed by former Prime Ministers Baldwin Spencer, said Musa and Ralph Gonsalves warned that punitive actions restricting fuel supplies could trigger a humanitarian catastrophe for Cuba’s 11 million citizens. The former leaders underscored that during her previous tenure, Persad-Bissessar herself supported annual resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly calling for an end to the decades-old U.S. embargo. They noted that as recently as October 2025, 165 nations reiterated that demand. “Our concern now is about human survival,” the group declared. “There can be no justification for the imposition of a fuel embargo which could extinguish 11 million civilian lives. Exposing citizens in any country to starvation, disease and extinction by denial of energy resources poses a mortal danger that transcends ideology.”

They added: “We have never wavered in our practice of democratic pluralism, nor failed to demand respect and universal obedience to international law. We note with satisfaction the intention of Prime Minister Persad Bissessar to attend the 50th Caricom meeting of Heads in St Kitts & Nevis and anticipate she will there, as is her right and custom, fully engage in constructive discussions which advance our collective interests for our shared humanity. The critical hazards and turbulence which confront us demand that our considerable vocal firepower as past, present and future leaders be directed against the hegemonic economic aggression which threatens havoc and death in our Caribbean space and not at each other.”

Persad- Bissessar over the weekend had criticised the former leaders. Persad-Bissessar highlighted what she said was the irony of the statement, noting that if those leaders were living in a communist country, they would not be able to issue such a declaration. The group expressed concern over the deepening humanitarian crisis in Cuba and said the January 29 executive order by the US against any nation providing oil to Cuba, without the imposition of punitive, discriminatory tariffs, constitutes economic warfare and inflicts unconscionable suffering on the Cuban people.

The issue of Cuba is expected to be raised at the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in St Kitts and Nevis from February 24-27, which Persad-Bissessar has confirmed she will be attending. Persad-Bissessar told the Trinidad Express that she supports the tenets of democracy and launched a stinging criticism of the former leaders’ statement. “What is really amazing about their statement is, had the eight of them been citizens living in a country under a communist dictatorship rule, they would not have been even able to put out any public statement because true freedom of expression and association would not exist,’ she said.

The Prime Minister added that people who live in democratic societies and vociferously support dictatorship and communism would never want to live under a communist dictatorship themselves. “Every one of these eight former leaders participated in democratic elections to become a leader and would want to continue to vote in democratic elections in the future to choose their leaders,’ she said.

She continued: “If these eight former leaders so love and adore communism and dictatorship and are against democracy, maybe they should work to disband the political parties that they are a part of.”

Persad-Bissessar also posed a question to the former leaders: “The question I have for these eight former leaders is why do they believe that they and their political party’s supporters should have the right to contest democratic elections to choose their leaders, but the Cuban citizens should not have the right to do the same?”

The Prime Minister said she will always support: 1. regular, free and fair democratic elections in a multi-party system; 2. citizens being equal before the law; 3. rule of law; 4. majority rule and minority rights; 5. separation of powers and checks and balances; 6. accountability and transparency; 7. freedom of expression and association; 8. capitalism.

Human suffering

Cuba has been under pressure since United States President Donald Trump’s administration ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power. Venezuela previously provided Cuba with fuel, and the nation has been facing crippling fuel shortages, forcing the Cuban government to implement a series of fuel-rationing measures and slash public transport.

In their statement issued on Thursday, the former Caricom heads said they were impelled to make public their appeal to avert further human suffering. “The consequences of this horrific fuel blockade are catastrophic and constitute cruel punishment of the 11 million civilians by the strangulation of Cuba’s vital requirements for energy, food, medication, education and basic livelihood,” they stated.

The former leaders noted that on December 8, 1972, the prime ministers of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago “made the bold decision to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba in assertion of our sovereign right to end the hemispheric economic isolation of a neighbouring Caribbean State.”

They added: “We, during our tenure over the last 33 years, have been inspired and imbued by the courage and foresight of our predecessors at the helm to consistently sponsor and support the resolutions at [the] United Nations General Assembly for the termination of the illegal financial and economic embargo by the US against Cuba. That abhorrent embargo was condemned by an overwhelming majority of member states, including four permanent members of the Security Council.”

Stating that ‘the global community cannot remain mute and indolent while a fatal pernicious fuel tourniquet stifles the Cuban economy and suffocates human lives there’, the former leaders said they are advocating ‘the imperative of repealing immediately any decree that will result in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Cuba and [which] undermine the tenets of international law’.

They reminded that the foundation of the Caribbean Community rests on the right of each sovereign state to promote regional solidarity and advance comprehensive cooperation among all Caribbean states. “We believe that the Caribbean citizenry will support any decision by our leaders to render tangible material support to our brothers and sisters in Cuba at this time of need,” they added.

“We dare not depart from this path and must now fulfil our sacred duty to appeal for the exercise of our shared humanity in responding to the terror of economic warfare against the Cuban people. We will never accept the doctrine that might makes right. Economic warfare waged on differences of ideology and political systems is no less odious in our single universe than military invasion anywhere for territorial aggrandisement,” they argued. They endorsed the findings of UN human rights experts that the executive order is a violation of international law and called on the international community “to provide Cuba with desperately needed humanitarian assistance.”

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• CARICOM, Cuba, economic warfare, Kamla, US sanction

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