US applauds T&T’s Cuba vote

SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Se­nior Re­porter

shar­lene.ram­per­[email protected]

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Gov­ern­ment came in for praise on so­cial me­dia site X, for­mer­ly Twit­ter, from Unit­ed States Deputy Sec­re­tary of State Christo­pher Lan­dau on Fri­day night for vot­ing with the US against re­mov­ing its em­bar­go on Cu­ba.

Lan­dau re­spond­ed to a post from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on her Gov­ern­ment’s rea­son for vot­ing against the an­nu­al Unit­ed Na­tions res­o­lu­tion call­ing for an end to the US eco­nom­ic, com­mer­cial and fi­nan­cial em­bar­go on Cu­ba.

The res­o­lu­tion was passed, with 130 in favour, 17 against and 25 ab­sten­tions.

Trinidad and To­ba­go was the on­ly Cari­com coun­try to vote “No.” A num­ber of Cari­com coun­tries, in­clud­ing Ja­maica and Guyana, were among those to ab­stain.

On Oc­to­ber 28, Per­sad-Bisses­sar post­ed a state­ment on X de­fend­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s vote, which rep­re­sents a shift in pol­i­cy af­ter decades of sup­port­ing the UN res­o­lu­tion.

She said the coun­try’s vote re­flect­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s “firm and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to democ­ra­cy, free­dom and fun­da­men­tal rights of all peo­ple.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she has made it clear that T&T will not sup­port mil­i­tary dic­ta­tor­ship in Cu­ba. She said the US gov­ern­ment has been spear­head­ing a cam­paign for democ­ra­cy in Cu­ba and men­tioned Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio’s com­ments that there must be po­lit­i­cal re­forms in Cu­ba.

In re­sponse late on Oc­to­ber 30, Lan­dau said, “Prime Min­is­ter, the US recog­nis­es and thanks your gov­ern­ment for vot­ing in favour of a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion in Cu­ba at the UN this year.”

He said the US was proud to stand along­side T&T and oth­er democ­ra­cies in the re­gion to call out the “re­pres­sive” Cuban regime.

“How can coun­tries vote in favour of a regime that has not al­lowed its own peo­ple to vote for al­most 68 YEARS?! May God bless you and the peo­ple of your love­ly coun­try, which I was proud to vis­it a few months ago,” Lan­dau added.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar replied, thank­ing Lan­dau.

“The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go stands for democ­ra­cy, free­dom, hu­man dig­ni­ty and the right of every cit­i­zen, in­clud­ing the peo­ple of Cu­ba, to freely de­ter­mine their po­lit­i­cal fu­ture,” she added.

It is not the first time Lan­dau, on be­half of the US, has heaped praise on Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her Gov­ern­ment. In Sep­tem­ber 2025, the US State De­part­ment re­leased de­tails of a call be­tween the US Deputy Sec­re­tary of State and Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Ac­cord­ing to the state­ment, Lan­dau reaf­firmed the strength of the US–Trinidad and To­ba­go part­ner­ship, de­scrib­ing the coun­try as a “strong US part­ner in the Caribbean.”

He ac­knowl­edged the Prime Min­is­ter’s pub­lic sup­port of US mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions in the South Caribbean Sea and em­pha­sised both gov­ern­ments’ com­mit­ment to com­bat­ing il­le­gal nar­cotics and firearms traf­fick­ing. The Deputy Sec­re­tary al­so high­light­ed the im­por­tance of es­tab­lish­ing a UN Sup­port Of­fice for Haiti, with both lead­ers stress­ing the need for in­ter­na­tion­al as­sis­tance to ad­dress in­se­cu­ri­ty and vi­o­lence there.

He met the Prime Min­is­ter face-to-face in Au­gust this year.

But de­spite the praise from the US, For­mer for­eign af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne has heav­i­ly crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for its stance at the UN.

Re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Browne said the vote has “re­al­ly tar­nished our na­tion and dis­graced our for­eign ser­vice.”

Browne said the Prime Min­is­ter and her regime have placed T&T on the wrong side of his­to­ry and against the UN char­ter.

“With that dis­grace­ful mi­nor­i­ty vote this past week to sup­port the star­va­tion and the siege of the peo­ple of Cu­ba, our coun­try is con­firmed as a vas­sal state whose sov­er­eign voice has been sold out and whose stan­dards have been farmed out,” Browne said.

He said Trin­bag­o­ni­ans are gen­er­ous peo­ple with com­pas­sion and warm hearts.

“Sad­ly, we are bur­dened with the most un­prin­ci­pled and heart­less prime min­is­ter and a regime that en­dors­es the star­va­tion of mil­lions of in­no­cent Cubans, in­clud­ing chil­dren. “The UNC has re­ject­ed the zone of peace, but it em­braces geno­cide, the mass de­pri­va­tion of food, and the use of black­outs as a po­lit­i­cal weapon. Shame on Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.”