Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent on Sunday remarked that the recent meeting with U.S. officials held last Wednesday was quite successful. Gonsalves reported that authorities met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Secretaries, Labour Commissioner, and ministers of Health, Agriculture, and Education.
Gonsalves indicated that U.S. officials expressed surprise upon discovering various aspects concerning the Cubans employed on the island.
“They were surprised that somebody who has a three-year contract, part of the contract is that they get 30 days of holidays, and they can go back to Cuba if they want. And if they go back to Cuba, we pay for their passage going, for their holidays and pay for them coming back. Which other worker in St Vincent gets that paid for by the state? And if you have to go through Trinidad, Barbados or Panama to get to Cuba and have any expenses in between, they keep the bills. We pay for those expenses in between because we value the Cubans and we value our own too, and our own have certain benefits.”
“They were further surprised, for instance, that we have six persons in education who did not come in through the Cuban government, and one of them is also a pastor in a church, and that the individual Cubans who are here with the programme through the government, their money is put into the bank and they have their own bank cards like everybody else. That there are Cubans who are on government contracts. At the end of the contract, they go back to Cuba, and they say, well, listen, we don’t want to work anymore with the Cuban government in any way. We are coming back to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and they are coming back here.”
Gonsalves conveyed uncertainty regarding the perceptions held by certain individuals in southern Florida, asserting that SVG is a nation characterised by its progressive labour laws and its commitment to all relevant conventions. They possess a perspective on certain events that may have transpired in the past; nonetheless, this does not apply to St Vincent, as articulated by Gonsalves.
“There’s no forced labour. The entry program is voluntary. They were recruited, in fact, recently. We send people to Cuba to make sure that the level of their English is acceptable in the practice of their particular profession. Some of them who have been with us for five years get permanent residency; some of them who married Vincentians or were here for seven years or more have citizenship. I am assembling all of that information so I can send it off to the Americans by Tuesday.
Gonsalves communicated to the U.S. officials that a copy of the definitive agreement between Cuba and SVG cannot be provided due to a confidentiality clause.
“As in all agreements between sovereign states and this particular clause, I can only make it available after the expiration of a year after the end of the agreement or if I ask the Cuban government if they can waive the confidentiality provision,” Gonsalves said.
