Jamaica Baptist Union slams Gov’t’s abstention on Cuba embargo vote

are, noting the deep and beneficial relationship between Jamaica and Cuba. “For half a century Cuba has trained our doctors, sent medical brigades to our clinics and built schools on our soil,” it said. “Our Parliament recently passed a unanimous resolution on Cuba. It voiced deep concern about the hardship facing the Cuban people, and it backed reform in Cuba and dialogue between Cuba and the US to ease economic restrictions.

The minister may be right that the motion did not call for the embargo to be lifted, and that it does not legally bind the executive. But a nation’s witness suffers when its Parliament says one thing and its vote at the UN says another,” it added. The union noted that the effect on the region matters too, highlighting that Caricom split on this vote. Describing it as a worrying crack in regional solidarity. “The small island states of the Caribbean have never drawn their strength from economic muscle. Our strength has come from moral clarity and from speaking with one voice. When we go quiet…