Barbados envoy presents credentials to Cuban president

Barbados’ newest ambassador to Cuba, the historian and former broadcast journalist Dr Sharon Marshall, presented her credentials to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez on Tuesday at the Palacio de la Revolución in Havana, cementing her new ambassadorial role.

The credential presentation ceremony followed protocol, with the Barbadian and Cuban flags on display, the playing of both nations’ anthems and an official military salute. It marked the culmination of Dr Marshall’s accreditation process, which began on April 29 when she presented courtesy copies to Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Josefina Vidal.

President Díaz-Canel emphasised the “historic and very close” ties between Barbados and other CARICOM countries, according to a foreign ministry statement. He reiterated the need to implement agreements from the eighth CARICOM-Cuba summit held in Barbados in December 2022.

After the ceremony, the new envoy to Havana laid a floral tribute at the José Martí monument in Revolution Square. The Cuban president was joined by the interim foreign relations minister, Gerardo Peñalver, while Ambassador Marshall was accompanied by her husband, Pedro Hope Jústiz, himself a Cuban of Barbadian descent, and embassy attaché Michelle Gibbons.

In her remarks, Ambassador Marshall said: “I am honoured to have been asked to carry on the sterling work of my predecessors here in continually strengthening the friendly relations between Barbados and Cuba. It is also an honour to have been asked to serve in a country where my roots are.”

She has written two books tracing her links to Cuba, where thousands of British West Indians migrated to Cuba in the early 20th century in search of work on US-owned sugar plantations. Ambassador Marshall’s mother was born in Cuba to Barbadian parents.

In her extensive research on historical migration between Barbados and Cuba, Dr Marshall has presented academic papers and lectured and written articles on various aspects of the topic. She is the author of Tell My Mother I Gone to Cuba: Stories of Early Twentieth-Century Migration from Barbados and A Return to Roots: “CuBajans” in Barbados.

(BT/MFAFT)