Peter Lansiquot, September 7, 2024
Remarks to commemorate: 5th Anniversary of Cuba – Saint Lucia Diplomatic Relations; 19th Anniversary of the Saint Lucia Cuba Humanistic Solidarity Association (now the Saint Lucia – Cuba Friendship Association); and 98th Anniversary of the Birth of President Fidel Castro Ruz.
In 1994, Comrade President Nelson Mandela published his autobiography, “Long Walk To Freedom”. He had secretly begun this project, twenty years earlier, in 1974, while languishing in prison on Robben Island. Five years after he started work on this cultural, political, historical and literary gem – in 1979 – Saint Lucia became an independent country, and we began taking our first tentative steps into the international community of decolonized nations that had been claiming their independence from the overbearing shackles of colonialism.
Almost immediately after our formal attainment of independence, that same year, we established diplomatic relations with Socialist Cuba, a clear indicator that Saint Lucia intended to blaze our own political, social and economic development trails, as a truly sovereign Caribbean nation, and today we celebrate the 45th Anniversary of our “long walk to freedom”, hand in hand with Cuba.
It has indeed been a long walk, and the government and people of Saint Lucia look forward to the day when Cuba will finally attain its freedom from the brutal and cynical shackles imposed upon the noble Cuban nation, by the neocolonial power brokers who invented and imposed upon it, the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade. Cuba has suffered this ignominy for 60 years, yet the Cuban people remain defiant and proud, in the revolutionary spirit of Jose Martí, Antonio Maceo de Grajales (The Bronze Titan – el Titán de Bronce), and Fidel Castro Ruz, whose 98th Birthday we also celebrate this year.
And speaking of what I have just described as this “noble Cuban nation”, let us recall that Cuba – in spite of the Economic, Commercial and Financial shackles of the Blockade and the concomitant technical and technological limitations that derive therefrom – was the Caribbean nation that produced 5 vaccines to successfully combat the Covid-19 Pandemic. Five vaccines!
It is this same noble Cuban nation, in spite of the Blockade, that has provided university and other scholarships to our Saint Lucian youth, over the last 44 years, with our Cuban trained students approaching the 1000 graduates milestone soon.
And, it is this same noble Cuban nation that continues to spite the Blockade, by producing hundreds of thousands of highly educated graduates in all areas of academia and other human development endeavours. Tens of thousands of Cuban Doctors are deployed all over the world, and here in Saint Lucia, saving millions of lives of poor, ordinary people. The Cuban Eyecare Brigade in Saint Lucia, which has cared for many thousands of Saint Lucians since 2004, and which almost became a permanent casualty of the botched move from Victoria Hospital to the OKEU Hospital, under the last UWP administration, will soon be restarting eye surgeries. There is a long list of needy citizens patiently awaiting the recommencement of these surgeries, and we will soon have very good news for them.
And in our long walk to freedom with Cuba, while Saint Lucians danced and celebrated with euphoric abandon, our first gold medalist this year, for which we will be eternally grateful to our daughter, Julien Alfred, Cuban athlete, Mr. Mijaim Lopez, took his 5th consecutive gold medal in Paris this year, in spite of the Blockade’s shenanigans. He is the first athlete in the history of the Olympics, to take 5 consecutive gold medals.
And, in our long walk to freedom with Cuba, and as this governing administration of the Saint Lucia Labour Party implements our revolutionary and trailblazing One University Graduate Per Household policy, we are assured that Cuba will continue to walk hand in hand with Saint Lucia.
As we celebrate today 45 years of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and as we celebrate 19 years of the existence of our Saint Lucia Cuba Humanistic Solidarity Association – now rebranded the Saint Lucia Cuba Friendship Association, and as we ponder upon our unforgettable friend, Fidel, for his 98th birthday, let us continue this “long walk to freedom”, hand in hand with our Cuban sisters and brothers, in the knowledge that the mutual friendship and solidarity between our two countries, are unconditional principles of our international relations.
Long Live Cuba! (Viva!)
Long Live Saint Lucia! (Viva!)
Long Live Cuba – Saint Lucia Solidarity and Friendship! (Viva!)
