WeeklySA_AdminINJUSTICE: Cuban officials celebrate the decision but insist their country should never have been included on the list in the first place…
By Pablo Meriguet
On January 14, US President Joe Biden announced that he removed Cuba from the list of the US State Sponsors of Terrorism. The announcement was celebrated by human rights activists, elected officials, including Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and progressive and left movements globally.
Cubans also hailed the move by the Biden administration but were clear in pointing out that its inclusion on the list in the first place was a great injustice.
Cuban Secretary of State Bruno Rodriguez wrote in a thread on X that although the measures taken by the Biden-Harris administration are positive, the SSoT designation caused much pain and suffering to the Cuban people and was always unjust: “Cuba should have never been included in an arbitrary list of State sponsors of terrorism. That was an arbitrary and politically motivated designation with a very severe impact on the Cuban population, damaging the economy, causing scarcities, and encouraging migration to the US.”
He emphasised, “measures announced by the US gov. are positive but delayed & limited. Economic warfare, extreme additional measures since 2017, disinformation operations to blame Cuba for the impact of blockade & programs & funds worth millions earmarked for interference actions still maintained.”
Rodriguez added, “The persecution of fuel supplies, medical cooperation programs, financial and commercial transactions, tourism, US citizens’ travels and anything representing a source of income for our population is still in place.”
He ended the thread on X by calling for continued solidarity with Cuba against the US blockade.
“We thank all governments, multilateral and regional bodies, religious and civil society organizations, solidarity groups, and Cubans residing abroad and ask them to continue accompanying the Cuban people in their just cause until the blockade is finally lifted.”
Sponsors of terror?
Former President Donald Trump added Cuba back onto the state sponsors of terrorism list on January 11 2021, just days before leaving office. The list includes several other countries, such as North Korea, Iran, as well as Syria, which remains on the list despite their recent change in government.
According to Washington, these countries “repeatedly provide support for acts of international terrorism.”
Cuba was first designated a “state sponsor of terrorism” by the United States in 1982 by right-wing President Ronald Reagan. President Barack Obama removed the designation in 2015 in the context of his efforts to warm relations with Cuba, but this move as well as several others to warm relations with the island, was reversed by Trump.
The US government at the time claimed several reasons for this designation, including Cuba’s hosting of the peace delegation of the National Liberation Army (ELN) during the period when the peace process between the ELN guerilla organization and the Colombia government had been suspended. The peace talks were suspended by Colombian President Iván Duque in 2019, after months of delays and sabotage by Duque’s government.
Shortly after, he called for the arrest and extradition of the entire ELN peace delegation, which was in Havana waiting for the next cycle of talks to begin. Cuba did not comply with this request as they are a guarantor of the peace talks and were obligated to protect participants. The US used this as justification to include Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
After winning the presidential elections in 2022, Gustavo Petro stated that one of his first actions as president would be to resume talks with the ELN and lift the arrest and extradition requests. Petro has been one of the sharpest critics of Cuba’s inclusion on the list and called it a “profound injustice…a stab in the back…that must be rectified.”
The Cuban government has, on several occasions, denounced the inclusion of its country on this list. Calling it absurd, the government maintains that the real motive behind the designation is to further suffocate a country that has already been battered for several decades by the economic blockade imposed on the Caribbean island by the United States.
The inclusion of a nation on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism promotes the economic isolation of that country. For example, any company that carries out commercial operations in those territories is at risk of sanctions.
In the White House communiqué, Biden attempted to justify the unilateral measures imposed on Cuba stating that its policy has always been focused on “empowering the Cuban people to freely determine their own future and advancing respect for human rights. This singular purpose has guided our policies to reunify Cuban families, strengthen cultural and educational ties between Cuba and the United States, enable remittances to flow more freely to the Cuban people, and increase support for independent Cuban entrepreneurs.”
According to the US Executive, the removal of Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list was also done to guarantee the freedom of more than 500 prisoners that Washington considers to be political prisoners. To reach this decision, the Vatican, through Pope Francis, intervened between the governments of Washington and Havana.
On X, the President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel said “As is standard practice in our legal system, we made the unilateral and sovereign decision to grant freedom to 553 people punished for various crimes.”
According to a communiqué from the Cuban Secretary of Foreign Affairs, “As part of the close and fluid relations with the Vatican State, the government of Cuba has kept in communication with Pope Francis and his representatives and, as in the past, has informed His Holiness about processes of review and release of persons deprived of liberty, a practice that is common in our justice system and that has characterized the humanitarian trajectory of the Revolution.
“As a manifestation of this practice and under the protection of the provisions of the national legislation, more than 10 thousand persons punished with deprivation of liberty were released from prison between the years 2023 and 2024 with different modalities of benefit provided for by law.”
The Cuban government’s declaration adds, “In the first days of January, President Díaz-Canel addressed a letter to the Supreme Pontiff in which, in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025 declared by His Holiness and which has just begun, he communicated the decision to benefit with the granting of freedom to 553 persons sanctioned in due process for various crimes contemplated in the law.
The releases are carried out based on a careful analysis of the different modalities contemplated in the legislation and as part of the fair and humanitarian nature of Cuba’s penal and penitentiary systems. These persons will receive their respective benefits gradually.”
In addition to removing Cuba from the SSoT, Biden announced the suspension, for the time being, of several other economic and judicial measures weighing on the Caribbean country. These measures were imposed in addition to, or rather complementing the economic blockade that Washington has insisted on imposing on the Caribbean island for more than 60 years.
Among the announced measures is “a waiver for Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, otherwise known as the Libertad Act, for a period of six months.” Title III was suspended since 1996, but re-enacted by Trump in 2019, and allows people to pursue claims for property nationalised in Cuba after the Revolution and sue companies doing business with Cuba.
Biden also eliminated the “restricted list” instituted in the 2017 National Security Presidential Memorandum 5 and “by extension the additional regulations on engagement by US persons and entities with Cuban persons and entities, beyond that which is currently prescribed in US legislation.”
According to Cuba’s Foreign Ministry the restricted list is of Cuban entities “which US citizens and institutions are not allowed to make financial transactions with, which has had an impact on third countries.” – People’s Despatch
