CARICOM Clears Path to Send Long-Delayed Humanitarian Aid to Cuba

Caribbean governments pledged nearly twelve months ago to assemble a relief package for cash-strapped Cuba, yet the commitment stalled as leaders cited international sanctions and other barriers blocking delivery. Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley now says those obstacles have been removed and member states are better placed to follow through.

Cuba and the fifteen-member CARICOM bloc have maintained close diplomatic ties since 1972. Over the decades, that partnership has broadened beyond diplomacy into two-way trade and the steady export of Cuban doctors, nurses, and other health workers to shore up under-resourced medical systems across the region.

Officials have not said when the financial or in-kind assistance will reach Cuba. Recent regional statements outlined a basket that includes baby formula, non-perishable food, beans, wheat flour, rice, canned goods, and hardware such as solar power units, batteries, and water tanks. Mexican authorities are expected to support the coordinated effort.

"When you live in a neighborhood, what happens in the neighborhood affects everyone, and the neighborhood stretches from Florida to Guyana and Suriname in the south," Mottley stated. "We recognize that this is always going to be a complicated and complex issue, as was reflected in the United Nations debate on Tuesday, but we want to remain focused on the humanitarian efforts and we want to remain focused on the dialogue that should continue to take place."

Word of the pending Cuba package emerged in the same week the region dispatched eighty-eight containers of food, three hundred large plastic water tanks, and additional supplies to earthquake-ravaged Venezuela, where authorities say more than three thousand people have died and many thousands remain unaccounted for. Trinidad has also indicated it is preparing its own consignment for Venezuela.

Mottley told reporters as this week's regional leaders summit concluded in St. Lucia that in one earlier attempt, CARICOM tried to wire funds to buy baby formula and other essentials. United States economic sanctions blocked the transfers when the international banking system declined the payments.

"The money that was sent back because of the sanctions, it is almost impossible to be able to deliver it, and we've had to go through circuitous routes with respect to dealing with countries who are willing to ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered to Cuba. Nobody is going to release the milk without payment, and because we are shipping it to Cuba, therefore the process goes through enhanced due diligence," she said.

"There is a humanitarian crisis, and you cannot continue to ignore that reality. Humanitarian relief comes above everything else, because none of us can give back life to anybody."