Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s de­ci­sion to sup­port the con­tin­u­a­tion of the Unit­ed States’ em­bar­go against Cu­ba was not a vote against the Cuban peo­ple, but in sup­port of their right to democ­ra­cy and po­lit­i­cal free­dom, says For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers.

“We can­not de­mand democ­ra­cy, free and fair elec­tions, free­dom of ex­pres­sion, and po­lit­i­cal rights for our­selves, while re­main­ing silent when those same free­doms are de­nied to the Cuban peo­ple. Our po­si­tion is against mil­i­tary dic­ta­tor­ship and sup­port­ive of the Cuban peo­ple’s right to de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect a gov­ern­ment of their choice,” Sobers said in a state­ment to Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.

Sobers said since as­sum­ing of­fice in April 2025, the Gov­ern­ment has un­der­tak­en a com­pre­hen­sive re­view of T&T’s for­eign pol­i­cy to en­sure it de­liv­ers on mak­ing this coun­try stronger, safer and more pros­per­ous.

He said that in Wednes­day’s Unit­ed Na­tions vote, Trinidad and To­ba­go had joined more than 45 coun­tries world­wide that chose not to sup­port the an­nu­al res­o­lu­tion spon­sored by the Cuban Gov­ern­ment re­lat­ing to US sanc­tions against the coun­try.

“This year’s sup­port for the Cuban Res­o­lu­tion has dropped to its low­est lev­el. When the UN Gen­er­al As­sem­bly first vot­ed on this mat­ter in 1992, three coun­tries op­posed it. But now more than half of Cari­com mem­bers chose not to sup­port the Cuban Res­o­lu­tion,” Sobers added.

He said the coun­tries in the West­ern Hemi­sphere which chose not to sup­port the res­o­lu­tion by vot­ing “No” were T&T, Ar­genti­na, Colom­bia, Cos­ta Ri­ca, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Those who chose to ab­stain were Chile, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Ja­maica, Guyana, Haiti, Hon­duras and Pe­ru. Oth­ers who chose to ab­stain were An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Do­mini­ca, El Sal­vador, Guatemala, Venezuela, and St Lu­cia.

Sobers said Cu­ba’s trans­for­ma­tion from one of the largest and most pros­per­ous economies in Latin Amer­i­ca to its cur­rent state was the re­sult of “the failed eco­nom­ic poli­cies of so­cial­ism un­der a dic­ta­tor­ship are re­spon­si­ble for the hard­ships and suf­fer­ing faced by the Cuban peo­ple.”

Re­it­er­at­ing that the Gov­ern­ment’s vote was not against the Cuban peo­ple but rather a vote for them, Sobers said T&T’s po­si­tion had been clear­ly telegraphed by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar when she called for change in Cu­ba dur­ing her ad­dress at Cari­com’s meet­ing in Feb­ru­ary.

“The ethos of our po­si­tion is based on the Gov­ern­ment’s firm and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to democ­ra­cy, free­dom and the fun­da­men­tal rights and dig­ni­ty of all peo­ple,” Sobers added.

He said the Prime Min­is­ter has con­sis­tent­ly stat­ed it is in­con­sis­tent to de­mand free and fair elec­tions, mul­ti-par­ty sys­tems, and po­lit­i­cal free­doms “in our own coun­tries while re­main­ing silent when those same rights are de­nied to Cu­ba’s peo­ple.”

Sobers added, “Nev­er­the­less, true sol­i­dar­i­ty isn’t si­lence. True sol­i­dar­i­ty is stand­ing with the Cuban peo­ple in their de­mand for po­lit­i­cal re­form, de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights, and free­doms — and for a fu­ture where Cu­ba’s pros­per­i­ty de­pends on the free­dom of its peo­ple, not on the preser­va­tion of a dic­ta­tor­ship. T&T will con­tin­ue to ad­vo­cate in Cari­com, in the UN and in all in­ter­na­tion­al fo­ra for a Cu­ba that is free, de­mo­c­ra­t­ic, and pros­per­ous — for all Cubans.”

Re­spond­ing to Op­po­si­tion whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les’ query as to why Prime Min­is­ter had changed T&T’s po­si­tion on the em­bar­go is­sue, Sobers said, “It’s based up­on that and look­ing at the po­si­tion the Cuban peo­ple are cur­rent­ly faced with a gov­ern­ment - ruled in an au­to­crat­ic man­ner - that this is T&T’s po­si­tion. Things have to change!”