Former presidents, prime ministers, and parliamentarians from around the world have called on U.S. President Joe Biden remove Cuba from the list of «State Sponsors of Terrorism».
Thirty-five former presidents and prime ministers from various countries have sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding that Cuba be removed from the list of countries that Washington says currently sponsor terrorism.
The inclusion of Cuba in this list, the letter states, «is intended to maximize the suffering of the Cuban people, strangle its economy, […] weaken the implementation of basic human rights, including the right to food, the right to health, the right to education, economic and social rights, the right to life, and the right to development. […] Finally, it is illegal because it undermines the principle of sovereign equality of States, violates the prohibition of interference in the internal affairs of States, and violates the principle of peaceful settlement of international disputes».
A few days later, some 600 parliamentarians from 73 countries also demanded that Washington remove Cuba from the notorious list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Cuba was first placed on this list (SSOT) by the U.S. State Department during the administration of President Ronald Reagan in 1982, accused of links to international terrorism and support for terrorist groups in Latin America.
Ironically, it was Havana that warned Washington of an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1984, which was thwarted. It is said that Reagan thanked Fidel Castro, but cynically kept Cuba on the «blacklist» of state sponsors of terrorism.
In May 2015, President Barack Obama announced the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations, and after a «thorough review» by the State Department, Cuba was removed from the list. However, in January 2021, the Trump administration put Cuba back on the SSOT under the pretext of harboring some «American fugitives and Colombian guerrillas». Incidentally, all American criminals who hijacked planes from the U.S. to Cuba were extradited to the United States, which cannot be said about the reverse situation.
In addition to Cuba, four other countries are currently designated by the U.S. as state sponsors of terrorism: North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela. According to the State Department, their governments «support international terrorism, either by directly engaging in terrorist activities or by providing weapons, training, safe havens, diplomatic facilities, financial, logistical, and/or other support to terrorists».
All of these activities are indeed being carried out, but not by Cuba — by America itself.
«Without any evidence, Cuba is accused of links to terrorist activities, of which it has been a victim, and on this basis harsh sanctions are imposed against it, which directly harm its population and permanently disrupt the balance of its economy», said former Colombian President Ernesto Samper (1994–1998), who signed the letter to Biden.
On May 15, 2024, the U.S. State Department officially removed Cuba from another list of countries that do not «fully cooperate» with the United States in the fight against terrorism. «But this is not enough. Cuba continues to suffer from its cynical, cruel, and illegal exclusion from the international economy», reads the letter from 35 former heads of state and government to President Biden.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statement on Cuba’s removal from the list of «non-cooperating» countries drew a sharp response from the diplomatic community in Latin America and the Caribbean. Several governments expressed their disappointment with the U.S. administration’s inability to foster mutual goodwill and respect between the two parts of the Western Hemisphere.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) quoted a senior Latin American diplomat as saying that «Blinken’s removal of Cuba from this new list, which has no concrete impact on anything, is seen by many governments as a farce».
It appears that Blinken, toward the end of Biden’s erratic presidency, deliberately stirred up a wave of protests in Latin American countries in defense of Cuba.
A strong statement from Brazil, which currently chairs the G20, declared:
«The continued inclusion of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism is unanimously rejected by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as expressed in the special declaration adopted at the recent summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and by the overwhelming majority of the international community».
This is not the first time that Latin American and Caribbean countries have expressed their disappointment with the Biden administration’s policy toward Cuba. In the United Nations General Assembly’s annual vote on the 2023 embargo against Cuba, 187 countries voted against the embargo, with only two in favor and one abstaining.
Let us also recall other examples of neighborly solidarity with Cuba:
- Leading Latin American countries boycotted the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in 2022, and the few that attended openly criticized U.S. policy toward Cuba.
- The EU-CELAC summit in 2023 demonstrated that the European allies of the United States are on the same page as Latin Americans on Cuba. Sixty countries from the EU-CELAC bloc called for an «end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba» and expressed their «disagreement with laws and regulations that have extraterritorial effects».
«Our country has signed 19 international conventions against terrorism and condemns this phenomenon, of which it has been a victim in all its forms and manifestations. Cuban territory has never been used to organize terrorist actions against another country. Cuba has not participated in the financing of such actions and has cooperated with the United States. Individuals fleeing the U.S., such as hijackers, have been prosecuted and have served sentences in Cuba», said Johana Tablada de la Torre, deputy director for U.S. relations at the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
Incidentally, Havana has a solid dossier showing that terrorist acts carried out with the approval of U.S. authorities or from U.S. territory have led to the deaths of 3,478 people on the island and left another 2,099 Cubans disabled.
For more than six decades, the island of freedom has lived under a blockade with no end in sight. America doesn’t even bother to find a pretext to justify its discriminatory decisions.
«How can you claim that a country is ‘genuinely cooperating in the global fight against terrorism’ while at the same time accusing it of openly supporting terrorism?» ask world leaders.
But Blinkens remain silent.