Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne has challenged Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds to declare Barbados’ stance on the United States’ injunction against countries employing Cuban medical professionals, contrasting their silence with the clear position taken by regional neighbours.Thorne urged the government to articulate its stance with the same clarity as St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves.“This government talks a lot. Presumably, this government also thinks a lot because you can’t talk unless you’re thinking. And we can’t see when you think,” Thorne told the House. “But we want to hear what you think when you talk.”Washington has threatened to restrict the visas of those countries involved with Cuban medical missions, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called “forced labour.” Rubio is the child of Cuban émigrés who fled the regime of then-Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, two years before the Cuban revolution.The threat has also prompted strong public outcry from the prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica who declared they would gladly forgo their US visas.Mottley assumed the chair of the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM) with the hosting of the bloc’s summit here last month.
