U.S. pressures St. Lucia to ban students studying in Cuba

Despite the fact that, historically, the Caribbean hasn't done anything of significance to harm the U.S., the Trump administration appears to have unleashed a string of unwarranted political and superpowered attacks on the region; a type so severe that governments are baffled about how to stave them off and keep going at the same time.

- By BERT WILKINSON

Prime Minister of Saint Lucia Prime Minister Philip Pierre at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. (Department of State official image department photo by Freddie Everett)

(Department of State official image department photo by Freddie Everett)

First, USAID closed off all its programs, leaving several key projects in the lurch; then the administration began to pressure governments into accepting third-country deportees from the U.S. As a signal to the others, it suspended tourist visa applications for citizens of Dominica and St. Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean in December, and last month included most of the 15-nation bloc, excluding Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad, on a list of 75 countries that it has banned from immigrant or permanent visa processing. Demands were also made of nations like Grenada — which the U.S. had invaded back in 1983 — to allow the military to set up radar stations on local soil to help it dominate the region.