US thanks T&T for standing against Cuban regime

US Deputy Sec­re­tary of State Christo­pher Lan­dau has thanked Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go for sup­port­ing calls for de­mo­c­ra­t­ic change in Cu­ba.

In a post on X on Fri­day, Lan­dau said the Unit­ed States recog­nised and ap­pre­ci­at­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s vote in favour of what he de­scribed as a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion in Cu­ba at the Unit­ed Na­tions this year.

“We’re proud to stand along­side Trinidad & To­ba­go and oth­er democ­ra­cies in the re­gion in call­ing out the re­pres­sive Cuban regime,” he said.

Lan­dau ques­tioned how coun­tries could sup­port a gov­ern­ment which, he claimed, had not al­lowed its peo­ple to vote for al­most 68 years.

“How can coun­tries vote in fa­vor of a regime that has not al­lowed its own peo­ple to vote for al­most 68 YEARS?!” he wrote.

He al­so ex­tend­ed his best wish­es to Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, re­call­ing that he was proud to have vis­it­ed the coun­try a few months ago.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­spond­ed by thank­ing Lan­dau for his com­ments and reaf­firm­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion on democ­ra­cy, free­dom and hu­man rights.

“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 said.

The ex­change fol­lows Trinidad and To­ba­go’s con­tro­ver­sial vote at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly on Wednes­day, when the coun­try joined the Unit­ed States in op­pos­ing a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for an end to the US eco­nom­ic, com­mer­cial and fi­nan­cial em­bar­go on Cu­ba.

It marked a sig­nif­i­cant de­par­ture from T&T’s long­stand­ing po­si­tion on the is­sue. The coun­try had vot­ed in favour of lift­ing the em­bar­go every year since 1993, hav­ing ab­stained when the res­o­lu­tion was first in­tro­duced in 1992.

De­spite T&T’s op­po­si­tion, the res­o­lu­tion was adopt­ed, with 130 coun­tries vot­ing in favour, 17 against and 25 ab­stain­ing.

The res­o­lu­tion, which is non-bind­ing, was the 34th an­nu­al call by the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly for an end to the US em­bar­go.

The Gov­ern­ment has de­fend­ed its vote on the grounds that it sup­ports democ­ra­cy and po­lit­i­cal free­doms for the Cuban peo­ple.