FORMER MINISTER URGES T&T TO STAND BY CUBA

KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­[email protected]

For­mer Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an is urg­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go to stand by Cu­ba, in­sist­ing that the Caribbean na­tion’s sov­er­eign­ty must be re­spect­ed and its peo­ple de­fend­ed.

His com­ments come amid a fiery con­fronta­tion be­tween the Unit­ed States (US) and Cu­ba at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA) yes­ter­day, which saw pro­ceed­ings briefly sus­pend­ed fol­low­ing heat­ed ex­changes over the decades-long Amer­i­can em­bar­go against the is­land.

The con­fronta­tion erupt­ed as the US rep­re­sen­ta­tive ac­cused Cu­ba’s lead­er­ship of cor­rup­tion, re­pres­sion and en­joy­ing lav­ish lifestyles while or­di­nary cit­i­zens strug­gled with short­ages of ba­sic ne­ces­si­ties.

Re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia via What­sApp yes­ter­day, Dook­er­an said the is­sue went be­yond the ver­bal con­fronta­tion and cen­tred on the fun­da­men­tal right of na­tions to de­ter­mine their own af­fairs. The for­mer for­eign af­fairs min­is­ter said, “The is­sue is re­al­ly about sov­er­eign­ty and the sov­er­eign will of a na­tion. The UN Char­ter pro­tects that right for all. Yes, in spite of the UN res­o­lu­tions, sanc­tions re­main, and this is an un­com­fort­able truth of geopol­i­tics.”

Dook­er­an said the con­fronta­tion was un­sur­pris­ing, giv­en the long­stand­ing geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions sur­round­ing the em­bar­go.

“The UN is a fo­rum to ex­press dif­fer­ences and cool ten­sions in pre­serv­ing peace. So, one can­not be sur­prised at the ver­bal con­fronta­tion at the UN; it sig­ni­fies noth­ing new.”

He em­pha­sised that Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean had his­tor­i­cal­ly sup­port­ed the re­moval of the em­bar­go on Cu­ba, a po­si­tion he said was ground­ed in in­ter­na­tion­al law and hu­man­i­tar­i­an prin­ci­ples.

Dook­er­an, who served as a min­is­ter from 2010 to 2015, said, “The Caribbean and T&T have tra­di­tion­al­ly called for the re­moval of the em­bar­go on Cu­ba, a Caribbean na­tion. And for good rea­son in law and hu­man­i­ty. We must con­tin­ue to stand for the right prin­ci­ples in the prac­tice of diplo­ma­cy, more so, as small na­tions, and the UN pro­vides a pow­er­ful medi­um to do so. These are prin­ci­ples that an­chor our thrust for peace and our sup­port for hu­man­i­ty. These are fun­da­men­tal premis­es for good or­der and de­cen­cy. ”

He al­so warned that T&T must not al­low it­self to be­come en­tan­gled in the geopo­lit­i­cal ri­val­ry be­tween ma­jor pow­ers at the ex­pense of its long­stand­ing diplo­mat­ic prin­ci­ples. “T&T must not be caught in the mud of the geopol­i­tics of our time; we can on­ly stand in de­fence of a sov­er­eign Caribbean state, striv­ing to serve the in­ter­est of its peo­ple. There can be no oth­er op­tion. To­day, the Cuban em­bar­go is cru­el, and our voice must be clear and clean.”

Re­flect­ing on his tenure as for­eign af­fairs min­is­ter, Dook­er­an said he had pre­vi­ous­ly raised the im­por­tance of ide­o­log­i­cal plu­ral­ism at the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

He said that T&T must con­tin­ue nav­i­gat­ing its in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tion­ships with­out com­pro­mis­ing its fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples.

Mean­while, the de­bate over a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for an end to the eco­nom­ic, com­mer­cial and fi­nan­cial em­bar­go against Cu­ba de­scend­ed in­to a se­ries of con­fronta­tions be­tween the Amer­i­can and Cuban del­e­ga­tions.

The US rep­re­sen­ta­tive ac­cused Cu­ba’s com­mu­nist gov­ern­ment of cor­rup­tion and po­lit­i­cal re­pres­sion, al­leg­ing that its lead­ers en­joyed ex­tra­or­di­nary wealth while or­di­nary cit­i­zens strug­gled with short­ages of food, fu­el and med­i­cine.

At one point, he dis­played pho­tographs of lux­u­ry watch­es, prop­er­ties and yachts, ques­tion­ing how mem­bers of Cu­ba’s lead­er­ship could af­ford such ex­trav­a­gance amid the coun­try’s eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties.

The ac­cu­sa­tions drew re­peat­ed ob­jec­tions from the Cuban del­e­ga­tion, which ac­cused the Amer­i­can rep­re­sen­ta­tive of ly­ing and in­sult­ing the dig­ni­ty of the Cuban peo­ple and gov­ern­ment.

The Cuban rep­re­sen­ta­tive said, “I would like you to call to or­der the ly­ing per­ma­nent rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Unit­ed States who is of­fend­ing this del­e­ga­tion, a del­e­ga­tion of a mem­ber state.”

The Amer­i­can rep­re­sen­ta­tive re­fused to back down, re­spond­ing sharply to the in­ter­rup­tions.

He said, “This is Amer­i­ca, my friend. This is the Unit­ed Na­tions. This isn’t your com­mu­nist dic­ta­tor­ship. You can­not si­lence me, or you can­not si­lence my col­leagues.”

He lat­er warned that con­tin­ued in­ter­rup­tions would on­ly prompt him to re­peat his ac­cu­sa­tions against the Cuban gov­ern­ment.

He added, “For­eign min­is­ter, here’s how this is go­ing to work. Every time you in­ter­rupt me and my right to speak here to the world and show your cor­rup­tion and malfea­sance, every time you in­ter­rupt me, I’m just go­ing to keep ex­plain­ing how cor­rupt this regime is. And I’m go­ing to do it a lit­tle more slow­ly.”

The ex­changes be­came so heat­ed that the meet­ing was briefly sus­pend­ed be­fore pro­ceed­ings re­sumed.

The US rep­re­sen­ta­tive al­so re­ject­ed Cu­ba’s char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion of the Amer­i­can re­stric­tions as a block­ade, point­ing to con­tin­u­ing ship­ments of goods to the is­land, in­clud­ing from Amer­i­can com­pa­nies and oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners. He ar­gued that Cu­ba’s eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties were the re­sult of its gov­ern­ment’s poli­cies rather than Amer­i­can re­stric­tions.

De­spite the con­fronta­tion, sev­er­al coun­tries and in­ter­na­tion­al group­ings con­tin­ued to sup­port the res­o­lu­tion, call­ing for the em­bar­go to be lift­ed and high­light­ing its hu­man­i­tar­i­an con­se­quences for the Cuban pop­u­la­tion.

How­ev­er, the Amer­i­can rep­re­sen­ta­tive urged mem­ber states to re­ject it.

He said, “Col­leagues, his­to­ry is watch­ing. Do not stand with this regime. Vote no on this res­o­lu­tion and stand with the Cuban peo­ple.”

Trinidad and To­ba­go did not de­liv­er a state­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day’s pro­ceed­ings.

No vote was tak­en, with the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue con­sid­er­a­tion of the res­o­lu­tion to­day.