标签： Grenada

Authored by Yadirys Echenique Paz, Cuba’s Ambassador, the statement outlines that on October 27 and 28, the United Nations General Assembly will convene for its regular debate and non-binding vote on the landmark resolution titled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.” For more than three consecutive decades, this annual vote has served as a global platform for UN member states to voice their stance on a unilateral U.S. policy that has inflicted cascading, severe harm on Cuban civilians, and has been repeatedly resoundingly rejected by the vast majority of the global multilateral body’s membership.

With the high-stakes vote looming, the Cuban government has publicly condemned a sharp uptick in targeted U.S. political and diplomatic operations designed to erode long-standing international support for the Cuban-backed resolution. This aggressive pressure campaign, officials note, is not an unprecedented tactic: for years, Washington has activated its full diplomatic apparatus in the lead-up to the UNGA debate to defend the indefensible policy and stave off yet another humiliating defeat on the world stage. What marks this year’s campaign as uniquely alarming, however, is the unprecedented scope of coercion, which includes direct, high-level outreach to heads of state and government across multiple regions, explicitly pressuring sovereign nations to alter their long-held supportive positions ahead of the ballot.

These heavy-handed interventions directly contravene the foundational norms of the post-WWII international system, including mutual respect for territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, and the sovereign equality of all nations. No UN member state, the Cuban envoy emphasizes, should be subjected to threats or lobbying pressure for exercising their inherent sovereign right to cast a free, uncoerced vote within a multilateral forum.

The damaging reality Washington’s lobbying efforts seek to obscure is increasingly impossible to ignore: the six-decade U.S. blockade remains the single largest structural barrier to Cuba’s sustainable economic and social development. Far from a limited set of trade restrictions, the policy’s sweeping extraterritorial sanctions, global financial persecution, cross-border trade bans, and explicit threats against third-party corporations operating in or with Cuba directly cripple the island nation’s ability to import life-saving medicines, staple food supplies, stable fuel reserves, critical industrial raw materials, and essential public services technologies.

New restrictive measures implemented over the past 12 months have compounded this humanitarian crisis drastically. Tightened fuel import curbs have gutted performance across core economic sectors and disrupted critical public services ranging from public transit to hospital power supplies. Parallel restrictions on global shipping have left thousands of cargo containers bound for Cuban ports stranded at international transshipment hubs, as global freight carriers and logistics providers avoid all transactions linked to Cuba out of fear of punitive U.S. secondary sanctions.

As Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla has repeatedly highlighted in public addresses, this year’s U.S. diplomatic offensive is intentionally designed to distract global stakeholders from the core, universally recognized truth at the heart of the upcoming UNGA debate: the U.S. blockade is an illegal, immoral, and inhumane policy that has inflicted devastating, long-term harm on ordinary Cuban people.

Washington is fully aware that its decades-old blockade policy is almost entirely isolated on the global stage. Every successive UNGA vote on the resolution over the past 30 years has laid bare the United States’ near-total lack of international support for the policy, as the overwhelming majority of UN member states vote annually to demand the immediate, unconditional full lifting of the blockade, and reaffirm their commitment to the core principles laid out in the UN Charter.

The upcoming October 27-28 debate, Ambassador Paz stresses, carries stakes far beyond the specific fate of Cuban communities. It represents a global referendum on the future of multilateralism itself, the inviolable sovereign equality of all nations regardless of size or geopolitical weight, and the fundamental right of every national population to chart their own development path free from external threats and coercive interference.

Cuba has expressed full confidence that the international community will once again rally behind these foundational global principles. Against deliberate diplomatic pressure, national sovereignty will prevail. Against orchestrated transnational intimidation campaigns, the inherent dignity of all independent nations will prevail. And against last-ditch attempts to erode global support for Cuba’s resolution, the widely documented truth of a policy that the world has condemned for decades will emerge vindicated, alongside the growing, near-universal global demand for its permanent, definitive end.

The tri-island nation of Grenada, including its territories Carriacou and Petite Martinique, has formally received its first cohort of 57 Ghanaian healthcare workers as part of the newly launched Ghana-Grenada Health Cooperation Programme, marking a landmark milestone in the Caribbean government’s multi-year push to upgrade national healthcare delivery for all residents. This targeted deployment of skilled medical personnel directly aligns with the Grenadian administration’s stated policy priority of investing in public well-being to address longstanding staffing shortfalls that have strained local health services for years. The incoming delegation is composed of 52 registered nurses, 2 laboratory technologists, 2 ultrasound specialists, and 1 board-certified general surgeon, who will be distributed across public hospitals, community health clinics, and national mental health facilities across the three islands. Grenada’s Ministry of Health has outlined a clear deployment framework: 34 of the new arrivals will support acute hospital services, 17 will be assigned to primary community care, and the remaining 6 will reinforce understaffed mental health programmes. The Ghanaian nurses will immediately help reduce dangerously high patient-to-nurse ratios that have persisted amid widespread regional healthcare workforce shortages, boosting the quality of bedside care in both inpatient and community settings. The two laboratory technologists will fill critical gaps in diagnostic testing capacity, while also supporting the ongoing rollout of the national Laboratory Quality Management System and advancing longstanding efforts to secure international accreditation for the Grenada Pathology Laboratory. The two ultrasound technicians will expand local access to diagnostic imaging at Princess Alice Hospital and Carriacou’s Princess Royal Hospital, eliminating the need for many Grenadian patients to travel to overseas jurisdictions to access routine ultrasound scans, a costly and logistically burdensome process for low-income families. The newly deployed general surgeon will expand local surgical capabilities, cutting long wait times for non-emergency procedures and creating structured opportunities for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing between local and visiting medical staff. Grenadian Prime Minister Hon. Dickon Mitchell framed the initiative as part of a deliberate, broader foreign policy strategy to deepen ties with African nations, rather than a one-off ad-hoc arrangement. He noted that the deployment represents a tangible demonstration of the growing bilateral partnership between Accra and St. George’s, designed to deliver measurable, on-the-ground benefits for ordinary citizens on both sides of the Atlantic. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Export Development Hon. Joseph Andall emphasized that the health programme is only the first step of a wider collaborative roadmap that will expand beyond medical cooperation to include increased cross-border trade, investment flows, and cultural exchange across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and African nations. Ghana’s Minister for Labour, Employment and Job Creation Hon. Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, speaking on behalf of the West African nation’s government, reaffirmed Accra’s commitment to supporting Grenada and the wider CARICOM region through targeted skilled labour exchanges, and noted that the two nations stand ready to expand future cooperation into the education and trade sectors to build mutually beneficial long-term partnerships. Ghana’s Health Minister addressed the departing cohort ahead of their journey, urging them to uphold the highest standards of medical ethics and act as cultural ambassadors for their home country, highlighting the deep historical and cultural ties that bind the two nations. Grenada’s Minister for Health Hon. Philip Telesford welcomed the delegation, acknowledging the extraordinary pressure that local healthcare teams have navigated in recent years to sustain services, and noted that the exchange would create mutual learning opportunities for both local and newly arrived staff. The Grenadian Ministry of Health has also confirmed it will provide full support for the incoming workers’ transition, including structured orientation programmes, guided departmental integration, and ongoing welfare assistance to help them settle into their new roles and communities. Beyond immediate service improvements, the Ghana-Grenada Health Cooperation Programme is designed to foster sustained professional knowledge sharing, advance workforce development for both national health systems, and strengthen long-term diplomatic and cultural ties between the two countries, as part of Grenada’s broader strategy to build a more resilient, self-sufficient public health system through targeted international partnerships.

As Grenada prepares for its 2026 General Election on Thursday, November 5, government authorities have released a comprehensive advisory outlining legal obligations for employers and key responsibilities for employees, designed to guarantee all registered electors can exercise their democratic right to vote without penalty or interference.

Under the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 286A, the law mandates that every employer must grant all voting-eligible employees a protected period of absence to cast their ballot on polling day. Section 83(1) of the Act explicitly prohibits employers from deducting wages or imposing any disciplinary penalties on workers for taking this legally required time off.

Employers who violate this regulation by refusing access to voting time, or who intimidate workers or exert undue influence over their employees’ participation, face severe legal consequences: penalties can include fines of up to $5,000, imprisonment for up to two years, or both, as outlined in Section 83(2). Additional protections are enshrined in law for voters: anyone who threatens harm or loss based on a person’s decision or choice of vote can be found guilty of undue influence, carrying penalties of up to $2,400 in fines, two years imprisonment, or both per Sections 90 and 92 of the Act. The Employment Act further reinforces these protections, stating that no worker may be discriminated against, disciplined, or dismissed based on their political opinion, per Sections 26 and 74(2)(a).

Alongside these legal requirements, the advisory outlines a series of recommended best practices for employers to follow ahead of polling day, to ensure a smooth voting process for all staff. The advisory particularly highlights the importance of advance planning, especially for workplaces in retail, security, hospitality, and essential public services that remain operational on election day. Employers are encouraged to adjust work rosters early, stagger work shifts and scheduled breaks to accommodate every employee’s voting schedule, and account for the reality that many workers, particularly those living and working across Carriacou and Petite Martinique, must travel between their workplace and their assigned polling station in a different constituency. Sufficient time should be granted to account for travel and potential waiting lines at polling locations.

Clear communication is another key recommendation: employers are advised to confirm in writing with staff ahead of polling day what procedures workers should follow to request time off, when they may leave the workplace to vote, and who they are required to notify. The advisory also stresses that employers must pay workers in full for their voting time, and should not require makeup hours for the time taken off nor count voting absence against any existing paid leave allocations. To maintain a fair democratic process, employers are also encouraged to stay strictly neutral in the election: they are urged not to direct staff how to vote, ask employees about their voting choices, or conduct any political campaigning within the workplace.

Additionally, employers are encouraged to accommodate staff who have been appointed as election officials or polling agents, and to confirm arrangements for their absence well ahead of time. Most importantly, the advisory reminds all employers that political opinion can never be a valid justification for disciplinary action, demotion, or dismissal, regardless of the election outcome, and that victimization of workers for their political beliefs before or after the vote is illegal.

For their part, employees also have responsibilities to ensure the process runs smoothly. The advisory recommends that workers confirm their registration and check their assigned polling station on the official voters’ list before requesting time off to vote, to avoid any last-minute confusion or complications. Workers are reminded that time off granted for voting is intended solely for that purpose, and that they should return to work promptly after casting their ballot if a significant portion of their shift remains, unless their employer has agreed to a different arrangement. Polling stations will be open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 5, and employees are encouraged to coordinate their planned voting time with their supervisor well ahead of polling day to avoid workplace disruptions.

This advisory, a joint publication from the Parliamentary Elections Office and the Division of Labour, summarizes core legal obligations and good practices for the 2026 general election. Members of the public can check the voters’ list or confirm their polling station details by contacting the Parliamentary Elections Office directly. Any questions about workplace rules and voting can be directed to the Division of Labour via phone at +1 (473) 440-2532 or email at [email protected].