On January 14, 2025, the government of the United States (US) announced that it has removed Cuba from the State Department list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism. The US also intends to make use of the presidential faculty to prevent US courts from taking action with regards to lawsuits that might be filed by virtue of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.
Another important announcement was to eliminate the list of restricted Cuban entities that designate a group of institutions which US citizens and institutions are not allowed to make financial transactions with, which has had an impact on third countries.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affair said in a statement that despite its limited scope, the US decision points in the right direction and is in line with the sustained and firm demand by the government and the people of Cuba, as well as many countries of the international community.
It added that the emphatic and reiterated calls by numerous governments, particularly those of Latin America and the Caribbean, Cubans in the Diaspora, political, religious and social organizations, and numerous political figures of the US and other countries have been at all -time high for the US to lift the suffocating blockade against Cuba.
According to the Cuban authorities, this decision puts an end to specific coercive measures which, together with many others, seriously damage the Cuban economy and have a severe impact on the population. This is, and has been, an ever-present issue in all official exchanges between Cuba and the Government of the United States.
“It is important to point out that the economic blockade and a large part of the tens of coercive measures entered into force since 2017 to further strengthen it, still remain in force, with their full extraterritorial impact and in violation of International Law and the human rights of all Cubans,” the statement added.
The following are just a few examples: The illegal and aggressive persecution of the fuel supplies that Cuba is legally entitled to import continues; the cruel and absurd persecution of the legitimate international medical cooperation agreements that Cuba has signed with other countries is maintained, thus threatening to deprive millions of persons of health services and limiting the potential of Cuba’s public health system.
There are also the international financial transactions of Cuba or those of any nation that might be linked to Cuba which have continued to be subject to prohibitions and reprisals as well as merchant vessels touching Cuban ports which have continued to be under threats.
Besides, US citizens, companies or subsidiaries of US corporations are not allowed to trade with Cuba or Cuban entities, with very limited and regulated exceptions. Harassment, intimidation and threats against a national from any country intending to trade with Cuba or invest in Cuba have continued to be part of the official policy of the United States.
Cuba continues to be a destination banned for US citizens by their government while the economic warfare is still in place and persists in posing a major obstacle to the development and recovery of the Cuban economy, with a high human cost for the population; which have continued to encourage emigration.
According to the Cuban authorities “The decision announced by the United States, rectifies, in a very limited way, some aspects of a cruel and unjust policy. This is a rectification that is being introduced right now, on the verge of a change of government, when it should have been materialized years ago, as an elemental act of justice, without asking for anything in return and without fabricating pretexts to justify inaction, if there was a true intention to act properly.”
Cuba decries the absolute absence of reasons for such designation following what it called its exemplary performance in the war against terrorism, something that has been recognized even by several US government agencies, which should have sufficed to remove Cuba from the arbitrary list of State sponsors of terrorism.
“It is known that the government of that country could reverse in the future the measures that have been adopted today, as has already happened in the past, and as an expression of the lack of legitimacy, ethics, consistency and reason in its behavior towards Cuba.
“To do that, US politicians usually do not take time to find an honest justification, as long as the vision described in 1960 by the then Deputy Assistant Secretary, Lester Mallory, and his expressed intention to put Cubans on their knees by way of economic siege, misery, hunger and desperation, remain in force.
“They will not take time to find justifications as long as that government continues to be unable to recognize or accept Cuba’s right to self-determination, and as long as it remains ready to pay the political cost meant by the international isolation caused by its genocidal and illegal economic suffocation policy against Cuba,” the statement added.
The Cuban government expressed willingness to face and condemn what it has continued to refer to as “economic warfare policy, the foreign interference programs and the disinformation and discredit operations financed every year with tens of millions of dollars of the US federal budget.
“The government and people of Cuba will also continue to be ready to develop a respectful relation with the US, based on dialogue and non-interference in the internal affairs of both countries, despite the differences,” it stated.
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