Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 15, 2021 (SKNIS): Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. The Honourable Timothy Harris has underscored the cordial bilateral relationship shared between the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Republic of Cuba and said that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis stands in solidarity with the Spanish-speaking Caribbean nation that is undergoing a period of difficulty at this time.
“Cuba at this moment in its history is experiencing significant social instability at this time,” said Prime Minister Harris on his television programme ‘Leadership Matters’. “Cuba has never seen the protest and the magnitude and the type that is now being evidenced, and we hope that the situation would be soon returned to calm.”
“It is a critical situation and we, of course, have high favour for the Government and people of Cuba who have always been with us in the Caribbean, who has provided free education to many of our citizens and residents, who even in our fight against this dangerous pandemic has made available to us its experts in health and a brigade from Cuba has come to help us,” he added.
Dr. Harris said that St. Kitts and Nevis’ Resident Ambassador to Cuba reported that “President Miguel Díaz-Canel convened a press conference this morning with key ministers to discuss issues relating to unprecedented widespread protest on July 11th. The challenges that Cuba is facing has led to growing levels of social dissatisfaction and actions taken by the government to resolve them.”
Prime Minister Harris said that the issues that have allegedly led to the protests are constant power outages in residential zones, shortage of medicines, shortage of food and basic items, limited access to vaccines, housing conditions and the issue of democracy and freedom.