The Bahamas supports the movement to end the United States embargo against Cuba

Christie courts Cuba partnership

By K. QUINCY PARKER
Guardian Business Editor
quincy@nasguard.com

The Bahamas affirmed its support for a move to end the United States embargo against Cuba, as the heads of state of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba adopted the Declaration of Havana on Monday at the close of the fifth CARICOM-Cuba Summit.

Prime Minister Perry Christie asserted that CARICOM and Cuba have always been able to overcome challenges and to develop strategies for mutual advantage.

“In fact, our forty-one years of diplomatic relations have been markedly fruitful as a result of functional cooperation in the areas of health, education, sports, culture, agriculture, disaster management, energy and construction,” Christie said, addressing the summit in Havana on Monday.

“We must continue to support each other in international fora, always providing reciprocal support for our initiatives, whether it is in advocacy for the rejection of any blockade against Cuba; support for the reclassification of middle income economies; negotiations for a strong post-2015 agenda that favors small island developing states; support for Cuba’s leading role in the CELAC process; and support for candidacies for election or appointment to multilateral bodies,” he said.

The prime minister said that The Bahamas and Cuba must continue dialogue on facilitating joint ventures in the tourism industry, particularly in concretizing the concept of multi-destination marketing initiatives and packages.

“This would surely make our region more competitive with other regions in the global tourism market,” he said.

Noting that transportation is key to national and economic development and the travel routes of both countries’ national carriers, Christie said Bahamasair and Cubana need to be further expanded to facilitate tourism, travel and international trade.

“The Bahamas, like Cuba, is also interested in seeking out new strategic partnerships for investment in renewable energy; partnerships that will facilitate access to new capital, more efficient technologies and new markets,” he said.

Christie also welcomed ongoing progress towards the finalization of a CARICOM-Cuba trade agreement, and said that at a bilateral level, negotiations for two Bahamas/Cuba Agreements for Cooperation in Animal Health and Plant Health are now well advanced.

Those issues and more were enshrined in the Declaration of Havana adopted on Monday, wherein CARICOM and Cuba committed to strengthen South-South cooperation as an expression of solidarity and the promotion of bilateral and regional programs as well as triangular cooperation for development.

In the declaration, heads of state - citing the cooperation between Cuba and CARICOM in health, the development of human resources, construction and sports - reiterated a commitment to continue promoting social initiatives as well as the implementation of projects to improve air and sea infrastructure and connectivity, and to broaden economic and trade relations through the implementation of the revised trade and economic cooperation agreement between CARICOM and Cuba.

The declaration also hails progress in the negotiations to expand market access and improve economic cooperation under the trade and economic cooperation agreement. Heads of state noted a desire to conclude negotiations by the end of the second quarter of 2015.

December 10, 2014

thenassauguardian

Castro and the US Cuban embargo: Be afraid, be very afraid

By Rebecca Theodore


Deck the halls with boughs of holly. It’s the season for propaganda. The spurs of the Florida electoral school are freshly cut. There is a sweet perfume. It is the perfume of votes renewed on the minds of Republicans. The US Cuban embargo is now inconsistent with traditional American liberties. Isolating Cuba was a mistake. It is time for a different policy. An image of flexibility has arisen just before the 2012 elections, as talks on Cuba always do. Afterwards, the blockade and the sanctions will remain intact.

So strike the harp and join the chorus. There is a need for dialogue. Cubans have been continually seduced and subverted and drawn across the line. They have been pushed almost beyond oblivion behind an iron curtain. The effects are jolting. It is not the season to be jolly.

Congress tells of Yuletide treasure but each time their efforts to ease the embargo are frustrated by Republican leadership. It is clear that it is Cuban-American activists concentrated in southern Florida which supports the embargo and Republicans feel indebted to please them at the expense of garnering votes in the upcoming presidential elections.

Hence, lifting the embargo is not about freedom for the Cuban people. It is about the unwillingness of Republicans to let the larger interests of the US and their own constituents be sacrificed to the gods of electoral politics.

In a country where education and health are triumphs of a revolution and where health care is a major export that it is in even paid for in oil, critics argue that the embargo now belongs to history; for in a post-Cold War zone it has outlived its main objectives.

Thus, the blazing Yule is as egregious as it is asinine and compounds fear and hypocrisy. Intriguing questions arise.

How can an embargo be lifted when the brutal abuse of human rights continue? What about the wrath of the Helms-Burton Act, where US courts continue to impose penalties on foreign companies doing business in Cuba?

It is true that the US can no longer continue to be the global laughing stock for using an embargo as a weapon of foreign policy against the Cuban people, while at the same time failing to impose trade sanctions against China because of its poor human rights record. It would be disastrous if we returned to business as usual without pausing to take note that the Chinese government has jailed and killed far more political and religious dissenters than has the Cuban government. Yet, China is America’s third largest trading partner while the maintenance of a blanket embargo on commercial relations with Cuba still prevails.

Rumours of lifting the embargo on the eve of an election year are dubious in theory and cruel in its potential practice. It is not a victory for Fidel Castro or his oppressive regime but just an overdue acknowledgement that a five-decade embargo has failed. While the Cuban people would be a bit less disadvantaged, lifting the embargo only shows that commercial engagement is the best way to embolden open societies abroad.

Henceforth, Obama’s ‘incremental design’ should be allowed to continue with the expansion of trade and tourism, for it is trade and development that give people tools of communication, i.e. cell phones, satellite TV, fax machines, and the internet in order to destabilize tyrannical regimes.

It is trade and development that increases the flow of goods and services and enlarges the scope of ideology, technically tailoring freedom in their path, thus giving birth to democracy and demands for better democratic institutions.

Following in fearful measure, America now bears the guilty burden before the world, while Cuba at 50 faces pressure for change. Stars shine in the Havana sky as if to answer the wind's defiant call. And the moon, crowned with yellow gorse dances fearful shadows in the courtyard of the dead.

November 2, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International