UNITED States of America Ambassador Brent Hardt contends that Guyana is a sovereign country, free to have relations with any country, but in the case of Cuba, as a “friend and neighbour”, Guyana should try to encourage the institution of greater democratic processes.

“I wish Guyana and other countries would reflect their own values and the aspirations of their people in their discussions with Cuba to try to encourage them to open up a bit and give the people the freedoms that the

people in this Region enjoy, demand and expect,” he said in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett rejected the Ambassador’s comments.
In an invited comment, she said, “This matter has come up before, and I indicated then that no one should instruct Guyana on what it should tell anyone, because Guyana will not be presumptuous to instruct anyone on what to do.
“I am aware that that there are several developed countries in the world that deal with other countries, which do not practise the democracy that is practised in Guyana or in the U.S. for that matter.”
MISSED OPPORTUNITY

The US Ambassador contends that Guyana and the wider Caribbean have “strong democratic traditions” that can be injected into the Cuban context.
Hardt said, “We (the U.S.) actually have more engagements with Cuba than people realise…the point that I have often tried to make is that Guyana, and the Caribbean as a whole, misses an opportunity to help inject into the Cuban context some of the values and ideals that underpin their own societies.
“These are countries with strong democratic traditions, with labour unions, with free and open press, access to information…these have been real strengths of the Caribbean countries.”
According to him, Guyana and other countries seem content to disregard the issue of democracy in Cuba.
He said, “Yet, in the case of Cuba, the Government seems happy to say that these issues are not things we want to talk about. This is a missed opportunity because I think the Caribbean example is a powerful one.
“I think coming from a friend and a neighbour like Guyana, Cuba would be much more receptive that having it come from us.”
The US Ambassador also referenced recent comments by President Donald Ramotar on Guyana’s position on the lack of a multi-party democracy within Cuba’s political system.

POPULAR REVOLUTION

The Head of State dismissed the notion that Guyana has concerns with the status quo in Cuba.“You’ve got to remember also that Cuba had a popular revolution. It wasn’t a one-man show. It wasn’t a few people. It was a mass uprising that changed the government in Cuba,” he said.
In 1956, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara landed in Cuba with a small band of insurgents, known as the ’26th of July Movement’, and began a guerrilla war against the government. In December 1958, Castro launched a full-scale attack and the then President, the American-friendly Fulgencio Batista, was forced to flee. In February 1959, Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba.
Mr. Ramotar added that as Head of State, he will not comment further on what is clearly an internal affair of Cuba.
Guyana and Cuba have enjoyed close collaboration in health, education, culture and sports since the establishment of diplomatic ties in December 1972. In 1974, the first Friendship society between Cuba and Guyana was constituted; ten years later, in 1984, the Committee of Friendship and Solidarity Cuba- Guyana came into being, and in October 2006, the Association of Friendship Guyana- Cuba was created but it was not officially registered. Last month the Guyana-Cuba Friendship Association was officially launched.
The U.S., since the revolution, has expressed concerns time and time again over the political situation in the Caribbean island and maintains its half-century-old economic embargo on the nation.
Guyana’s position on the United States’ decades-old economic and financial embargo on Cuban remains unchanged, as has that of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).They all feel it should be lifted.

(By Vanessa Narine)