Dear Editor,

I was really touched by the recent Jamaica Observer article ‘Mexico to send food aid to Cuba while seeking end to oil siege — Sheinbaum’.

I must say Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has gone up 100 per cent in my book for not only her humanity, but also her courage.

We all know life is not fair, but what is particularly despicable about politics is the fact that all over the world millions of people consistently suffer and die because of the actions of a few people. Nowhere is this being played out more before our eyes than with our nearest neighbour, Cuba.

I am no Cuban apologist, for I despise communism, and for a few years in the 1970s I even assumed an activist role when the Cubans, under their patron Michael Manley, appeared to be close to introducing their alien ideology and attempted influence into Jamaica. This is all recorded in my bestseller,
Looking Back: The Struggle to Preserve Our Freedoms.

But the reality is the vast majority of ordinary Cuban people have suffered immensely for decades: First, under the dictator Fulgencio Batista, then under successive dictators from the Castro family and their successors. And I, like so many Jamaicans, have close relatives there.

More than a century ago, Cuba provided an escape valve for many of our ancestors and some of us remain in touch with our kit and kin living in penury there. For, in case you forgot, when slavery was abolished and thousands of “freed” slaves had no means of survival, it was to Cuba they fled to seek employment. That big, beautiful island is only 90 miles away at its closest point, so Jamaicans could escape there in crude vessels that were barely seaworthy. As such, when you go to areas in Santiago, Holguin, and Guantanamo Bay, there are hundreds of thousands of Cubans there of Jamaican ancestry.

I still remember well the old man I met in Guantanamo Bay (the Cuban side) decades ago. He had never been to Jamaica or even met or been in touch with his family here, but he listened to Jamaican radio everyday, spoke a fair amount of patois, knew everything about us, including the price of a lot of basic products, and longed to meet his Jamaican family.

So, no, our history with the Cuban Government has not always been cordial, but after the Michael Manley era, the Government went from interfering in our internal affairs to assisting in many areas, especially education and health.

And when I think of the plight of our families and others there — who are today without viable incomes, light, power, basic foods, medicine, etc — since the latest threat of increased sanctions from the Americans to any country that provides them with fuel, you know things can only get worse each day.

The reality is neither Mexico nor Jamaica can defy the Americans as far as these threats are concerned. However, President Sheinbaum was not prepared to just walk away and do nothing, hence her determination to use diplomacy while sending food aid to the beleaguered people.

What is the Jamaican Government doing?

Joan Williams

gratestj@gmail.com