Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Cari­com is mov­ing to dis­patch hu­man­i­tar­i­an aid to Cu­ba fol­low­ing a de­ci­sion tak­en at the re­gion­al bloc’s 50th Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment in St Kitts and Nevis. How­ev­er, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment has yet to spec­i­fy what re­lief items it will con­tribute to the ef­fort.

The ini­tia­tive was an­nounced by Cari­com Chair­man and Prime Min­is­ter of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Ter­rance Drew, who said lead­ers agreed to a co­or­di­nat­ed re­gion­al re­sponse to sup­port the is­land.

The Cari­com Sec­re­tari­at, based in George­town, Guyana, has been tasked with co­or­di­nat­ing the op­er­a­tion, in­clud­ing the pro­cure­ment and ship­ment of sup­plies on be­half of mem­ber states.

Ac­cord­ing to the state­ment, “items such as pow­dered milk, in­clud­ing ba­by for­mu­la, non-per­ish­ables such as beans, wheat flour, rice, and canned goods; ba­sic med­ical sup­plies, so­lar pan­els, bat­ter­ies, and wa­ter tanks, will be pur­chased on be­half of Mem­ber States and shipped to Cu­ba.”

Of­fi­cials say the range of items re­flects an at­tempt to ad­dress both im­me­di­ate hu­man­i­tar­i­an needs and longer-term re­silience, par­tic­u­lar­ly in vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties.

The ef­fort is be­ing bol­stered by Mex­i­co, which Cari­com said has agreed to as­sist with sourc­ing and lo­gis­tics.

In its state­ment, the re­gion­al body not­ed that “The Gov­ern­ment of Mex­i­co has iden­ti­fied sup­pli­ers in Mex­i­co able to de­liv­er the items to the port of de­par­ture and will pro­vide free ship­ment from Mex­i­co to Cu­ba.”

While no firm time­line has been giv­en for the ship­ment, of­fi­cials in­di­cat­ed that arrange­ments are be­ing fi­nalised to en­sure the sup­plies are dis­patched as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

Guardian Me­dia sent ques­tions to For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, ask­ing ex­act­ly what Trinidad and To­ba­go will be con­tribut­ing to this re­lief ef­fort; how­ev­er, he did not re­spond.

Sim­i­lar ques­tions were al­so sent to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar; how­ev­er, she did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond.

Speak­ing at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the last Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in St Kitts and Nevis in Feb­ru­ary, on Cu­ba, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “we have to find a mech­a­nism for the hu­man­i­tar­i­an ef­forts of the peo­ple of Cu­ba, but at the same time, we can­not and I will not, Trinidad and To­ba­go will not sup­port a dic­ta­tor­ship in Cu­ba or any­where else.”

The UWI St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus is or­gan­is­ing a re­lief dri­ve to sup­port Cu­ba amid cur­rent hard­ships, ac­cept­ing do­na­tions un­til March 31, 2026. Con­tri­bu­tions in­clude non-per­ish­able items dropped at the OS­HE Unit, Car­mody Road, or mon­e­tary do­na­tions via a des­ig­nat­ed on­line por­tal for pur­chas­ing so­lar pan­els.

The hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis in Cu­ba has reached a tip­ping point, marked by a near-to­tal col­lapse of the elec­tri­cal grid, acute short­ages of food and med­i­cine, and the break­down of wa­ter and san­i­ta­tion sys­tems.

On Jan­u­ary 29, 2026, the US ad­min­is­tra­tion is­sued an ex­ec­u­tive or­der de­clar­ing a na­tion­al emer­gency re­gard­ing Cu­ba. This or­der es­tab­lished a mech­a­nism to im­pose sec­ondary tar­iffs on any coun­try, specif­i­cal­ly tar­get­ing Mex­i­co and Venezuela, that con­tin­ues to ship oil to the is­land. Since ear­ly Jan­u­ary, Cu­ba has re­port­ed­ly re­ceived no ma­jor oil ship­ments, lead­ing to a 90% re­duc­tion in its fu­el sup­ply.

The US has adopt­ed a pol­i­cy of "max­i­mum pres­sure" through ex­ec­u­tive or­ders and tar­iff threats on third-par­ty sup­pli­ers to trig­ger regime change, while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly al­low­ing lim­it­ed hu­man­i­tar­i­an aid to reach the pri­vate sec­tor.