We propose to use the PEP column this week to publish part of the text of a very important speech on Cuba that was delivered in Parliament last Tuesday by Mr Hamilton Lashley, Member of Parliament for St Michael South East.
The text is as follows: “Mr Speaker, as we meet here today, a mere three days after I and several other Barbadians participated in a most moving ceremony at the Cubana Monument in Holetown to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Cubana tragedy of October 6, 1976, I consider it to be incumbent on myself to use this opportunity to reflect on two very important anniversaries relating to the heroic nation and people of Cuba.
“The first such anniversary is the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between revolutionary Cuba and the then four independent nations of the English-speaking Caribbean – Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and our very own Barbados.
“It was on the 8th of December 1972 that four small but principled and self-respecting Caribbean nations took the courageous step to defy the mighty United States of America and to break the almost total diplomatic isolation that the USA had imposed on revolutionary Cuba in our Western hemisphere.
“It behoves us to recall that 1972 was a mere 13 years after the triumph of the Fidel Castro-led revolution in Cuba in 1959. Almost from the very beginning of Revolutionary Cuba, the government of the USA launched a formidable multi-faceted assault on the Cuban nation and people, consisting of the fomenting of internal subversion on the island, the organizing and training of mercenaries to attack Cuba, the unleashing of terrorist aggressions against the Cuban people, the waging of a powerful diplomatic offensive against the Revolution . . . .
“Indeed, it should be noted that as recently as 31st July of this year, the US State Department further intensified the blockade by perversely including Cuba on a unilateral and arbitrary list of states that the US government accuses of sponsoring international terrorism. Of course, the real purpose that is being pursued with the inclusion of Cuba on that spurious list is the fabrication of a pretext to increase the persecution of Cuba’s international financial transactions, thereby exacerbating and adding to the US$1 trillion in damage that has already been caused by the illegal blockade.
“But, at least, in this current era, Cuba routinely has no less than 180 countries annually voting with it in the United Nations for a termination of the illegal blockade! This, however, was not the case back in 1972 when the USA exerted maximum power and influence right across the Western hemisphere!
“Back then, not even Mexico, a relatively large and powerful traditional friend of Cuba, dared to defy the USA and officially recognize revolutionary Cuba. And so, we must give much credit to the four great political leaders of the English-speaking Caribbean who possessed the fortitude and sense of principle to do what was right and to insist that the new revolutionary Republic of Cuba was an integral part of our Caribbean region and had to be officially recognized as such.”
• The PEP column represents the views of the People’s Empowerment Party.