Caricom Summit adopts Declaration against U.S. blockade

Havana, Dec 6 (RHC) The VIII Caricom-Cuba Summit adopted on Tuesday the Bridgetown Declaration, which calls for an immediate end to the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade against the largest Antillean Island.

The information was released by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on his Twitter account, in which he also noted that the document signed in Barbados rejected the imposition of unilateral coercive measures.

The meeting was attended by a high-level Cuban delegation headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel. During the opening session, he expressed that "this meeting transcends formal relations and confirms our deep bonds of brotherhood".

A tweet from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said that the text declares October 6 as Caricom-Cuba Day against terrorism, in memory of those killed in the attack on the Cubana de Aviación plane that crashed in Barbadian waters that same day, in 1976.

Photo: @DiazCanelB

The VIII Caricom-Cuba Summit was held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, on December 8, 1972, between the first four independent territories of the English-speaking Caribbean and the largest island of the Antilles.

Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago decided to formalize and strengthen ties with Havana after their independence from the United Kingdom and despite Cuba's regional isolation.

These four countries led the founding of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in July 1973, an integration mechanism to which Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname also belong.

Cuba maintains relations at the highest level with the States of the Community, based on respect, equality, cooperation, and solidarity. (Source: PL)