All independent Member States of the Community will be represented with ten at the level of Head of Government. The Cuban delegation will be led the President Castro Ruz.

This Fourth CARICOM-Cuba Summit will be focussing on five broad areas. These are Sustainable Development, CARICOM-Cuba Relations, Regional Integration, Haiti and Security.

The opening ceremony at the National Academy of the Performing Arts (NAPA) will be at 10 am and there will be speeches by the CARICOM Chairman Dr. Douglas, the President of Cuba, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the Secretary-General of CARICOM, His Excellency Ambassador Irwin LaRocque.

The working sessions will also be held at NAPA.

The Summit was preceded by a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of both sides on Wednesday.

The first Caricom-Cuba Summit was held in Havana, Cuba, on December 8, 2002, and the Havana Declaration was adopted on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the four Caricom countries that were independent at that time—Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

It was also decided to commemorate December 8 each year as Cuba-Caricom Day, and to establish a summit every three years on that date.

Two further high-level meetings between Caricom and Cuba have been held—in Barbados in 2005, and in Santiago de Cuba in 2008.

Meanwhile, the controversially long reach of the US Helms Burton law which prevents US firms from doing business with Cuba has meandered into Trinidad and Tobago where US-based hotel chain Hilton Worldwide has been denied a special licence from the US Government to allow for the IV Caricom/Cuba Summit to be held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre with visiting Cuban President Raul Castro.

 The two-day summit, which starts today, will instead be held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain.

A statement from Hilton Worldwide, said that “as a US-based company, Hilton Worldwide is subject to US law, which restricts certain activities as a result of the trade embargo with Cuba. The US/Cuban assets control regulations administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the US Department of the Treasury generally prohibits US-based companies from providing any services that benefit the Cuban Government unless specifically licensed. Violations are subject to significant civil and criminal penalties.

“While we have worked with the appropriate governmental agencies in the US and Trinidad and Tobago to secure a licence, we have been informed that one will not be granted.”

Hilton Worldwide advised in its letter that further questions should be posed to the US Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago.

The summit brings together regional heads with the leader of Cuba. It will be Castro’s first visit to T&T since he assumed the presidency in 2008, succeeding his brother, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The summit has been held within various CARICOM member states over the last decade, as regional territories have deepened ties with Cuba and seek to further enhance co-operation with that country.

At the last summit in 2008, then-Cuban President Fidel Castro was presented with CARICOM’s highest award—the Order of CARICOM.

T&T had later been designated as the location for the next summit. At that Summit, 14 Caribbean heads of state called on US President Barack Obama to remove the decades-old trade embargo between the US and Cuba. The embargo still stands today.

During his two-day visit to Trinidad and Tobago, Cuban President Raul Castro is scheduled to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph, Memorial Park.

He will also pay courtesy calls on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, with whom he will also attend a bilateral meeting, and President George Maxwell Richards.

Castro is scheduled to arrive in Trinidad and Tobago today for his first State visit to this country.

The first Caricom-Cuba Summit was held in Havana, Cuba, on December 8, 2002, and the Havana Declaration was adopted on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the four Caricom countries that were independent at that time—Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. It was also decided to commemorate December 8 each year as Cuba-Caricom Day, and to establish a summit every three years on that date.

Two further high-level meetings between Caricom and Cuba have been held—in Barbados in 2005, and in Santiago de Cuba in 2008.

Fidel Castro visited Trinidad and Tobago in 1995, when he attended a conference of the Association of Caribbean States, which was held at the Hilton.

In 1996, the US passed the Helms- Burton law which prohibits a number of  situations concerning Cuba, including recognition of a transitional government in Cuba that includes Fidel or Raúl Castro. The law, named for two US senators who piloted it, strengthens the US embargo against Cuba. The act is a unilateral declaration, and not considered as part of international law.

Among stipulations, any non-US company that deals economically with Cuba can be subjected to legal action and that company’s leadership can be barred from entry into the United States.

Sanctions may also be applied to non-US companies trading with Cuba. This means that internationally operating companies have to choose between Cuba and the US, which is a much larger market.