October 29, 2026
Guyanese across the board were deeply ashamed when the Government of Government, under pressure from the Trump regime, abstained from voting on the UN resolution to end the inhumane and criminal blockade imposed by the US Empire on Cuba. Cuba is the only Caribbean nation that can claim to have held on to its sovereignty and inalienable right to self-determination, and the only nation in the region that has dismantled the colonial political architecture and structures.
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, actually cast a vote against the resolution; she voted for what is being described as a slow genocide against the people of Cuba to continue. It’s hard to say which move was more disgraceful. Both actions – abstention or a vote against - were of course the same in terms of outcome. Along with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, the Government of Guyana demonstrated to the world exactly where they stand. They are standing firmly in the camp of naked fascism; with those who have come to be known as ‘the genociders’. And then there were the representatives of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Saint Lucia, with an even more spineless move, deciding to absent themselves from the General Assembly Hall just as they were taking the vote. All actions had the same outcome.
Guyana’s move was one of such cowardice that it was hard to believe, especially from the party founded by the world-renowned anti-imperialist and freedom fighter, Dr. Cheddi Jagan. The PPP government betrayed Cuba, a country that stood by us for decades, providing so much in terms of medical and other forms of assistance. Cuba did not start helping Guyana when the first medical brigades arrived in 1978. Help was extended to Cheddi Jagan when he was premier as far back as 1961-64, in his hours of need. The great African freedom fighter Kwame Ture would often remind us that ingratitude is worse than witchcraft. Apart from anything else, Guyana’s ingratitude on this occasion is deplorable.
The PPP regime’s historic abstention will be portrayed in years to come as a colossal betrayal of the founding principles of not only their own party, but of Caricom itself. Political renegadism can of course be good if it is a fracture against repression and injustice. However, renegadism in this context served to place our nation in the camp of a US regime that is engaged in the aggressive recolonization of our region. President Ali and the other seven Caribbean leaders sided with the so-called Donroe Doctrine, that not only sees the Caribbean as the “backyard” of the US Empire but is intent on viewing the countries of the region as mere proxies and vassal states.
Unfortunately, a number of mentally incarcerated political commentators in Guyana start from a position that accepts the absurd concept of this geo-political fatalism. That because we are located in the so-called backyard of the US, it seals our fate, and that resistance is futile. This position condemns us to live and die as slaves, as minions of a genocidal empire. Like our great ancestors, Kofi (Cuffy), Atta, and Accabre, and all those who fought alongside them,
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP) will never accept this fate. We do not agree with those who say that our enslavement is inevitable.
We know what is inevitable and that is the collapse of this cruel and oppressive Empire, which in its desperation, is openly displaying its savage nature. 60 plus years of economic blockade, designed to break the will of the Cuban people. When I am sitting in the dark at nights in my house with no fans and feeling frustrated because it’s power outage again, I think of the Cuban people who have suffered this for almost a year, who cannot sleep at night because of the heat and no fans. Who do not have cooking gas and are cooking on wood fires. Nothing wrong with cooking on a wood fire, but it does not work when you have 4 children, are employed and trying to cope with a modern busy life.
Every Cuban’s life has been turned upside down. No ambulances, no transport of foodstuffs, water shortages, hospitals forced to operate without lights, xrays and scanners not working, vital treatments like dialysis and chemotherapy severely rationed and strained by critical shortages of electricity, fuel, and medical supplies, to name just a few of the daily challenges Cuban citizens are being forced to deal with. All this in the name of US ‘democracy’. The suffering of the Cuban people has become unbearable.
The persecution of Cuba did not begin the other day; it has been going on since the inception of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. And, as people watch the intensification of this persecution unfold in real time, and see many Cuban men, women and children losing their lives as a result, they are asking why? Cuba has never threatened any other nation militarily or been involved in any act of terrorism. On the contrary, Cuba has been the victim of US State-sponsored terrorism on numerous occasions. One of many examples was the bombing of the Air Cubana flight from Guyana to Cuba via Barbados in 1976, that killed all 73 passengers including 11 Guyanese. The only threat Cuba poses is that unlike other countries in the region, Cuba refuses to bow to the US hegemon, opting instead for true independence.
President Ali and his regime are holding on to the tail of a drowning cow and are leading this nation down the wrong path. Against the will of what I believe to be the majority of Guyanese citizens; they have sold out their founding fathers and all that right minded Guyanese people hold dear. They have aligned our country with an Empire that is waging unjust and illegal wars against governments and people's who refuse to relinquish their sovereignty and independence. October 28th was a sad and embarrassing day for the peoples of Guyana and the seven Caribbean nations who broke ranks with Caricom, turning on their own and capitulating to Trumpism. History will not absolve them.
Gerald A. Perreira
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP)
Guyana