The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) expresses its profound concern regarding the ongoing and intensifying economic, commercial, and financial measures imposed upon the Republic of Cuba. The COFCOR reminds that the mounting hardships facing the Cuban people also seriously impact CARICOM nationals studying and living in Cuba, whose well-being remains a priority for the Community.

These measures compound the trade and economic embargo imposed on Cuba for over six decades, which has had a deleterious effect on the lives and livelihoods of the Cuban people. COFCOR unequivocally affirms Cuba’s sovereign right to import and receive fuel, and condemns the obstruction of energy supplies to Cuba, which has precipitated a grave humanitarian crisis.

COFCOR reaffirms the need for the preservation of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace and expresses alarm at recent statements that suggest the possibility of military aggression against the Republic of Cuba; any such action would inflict unnecessary human suffering, impose grave material costs, and fundamentally destabilize the security architecture of the entire Caribbean region.

As a matter of international law and in solidarity with the resolutions adopted year after year by the overwhelming majority of United Nations member states, the COFCOR reaffirms that Cuba poses no threat to any nation, that it stands as a peaceful and cooperative member of the international community, and that the continued application of these unilateral coercive measures constitutes an unjustifiable violation of human rights, the principles of free trade, and the fundamental norms governing relations among sovereign states.

The Cooperative Republic of Guyana and The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago reserve their positions on the foregoing Statement