Intellectuals ask Biden to remove Cuba from the list of sponsors of terrorism

From the Editorial Staff

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 7, 2024, p. 24

Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, in an open letter addressed to US President Joe Biden, yesterday asked that Cuba be removed from the list of States sponsoring the terrorismthereby reversing the action of then-US President Donald Trump in January 2021.

Prominent intellectuals and activists from around the world have signed the letter, including the Brazilian priest Frei Betto, the Brazilian journalist and politician Fernando Morais, the Venezuelan writer Luis Britto Gracía, the Colombian writer Pablo Montoya, as well as the Mexican academic and politician Héctor Díaz Polanco, among others.

Mr. President, this situation must end. You know it. There is not a single valid and reasonable argument to accuse Cuba and keep its population under an illegal and inhuman collective punishment. You have the authority, before leaving the White House, to correct such cruel absurdity and remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism (SSOT). Do it now!the letter indicates.

“The administration of President Barack Obama, of which he was a part, removed Cuba from that dishonorable list in 2015 continues.

He added that “Cuba has always denounced and fought ‘terrorism’. It has never encouraged or sponsored it. It has never practiced it. For 65 years, despite the tensions that may have existed between the United States and Cuba, not a single case of violent action that has taken place on American territory has been sponsored, directly or indirectly, by Havana.”

It is recalled that the inclusion of Cuba in the SSOT list implies numerous and painful unilateral coercive measures against this country and its population. The most atrocious consequences arise from the risk associated with any humanitarian aid, business, investment and trade involving Cuba and, by extension, its citizens..