On January 14, the Biden administration announced these actions related to Cuba:

• Removal from the US State Sponsors of Terrorism List
• Suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act
• Elimination of the list of restricted entities (in Cuba) with which financial transactions are prohibited for individuals and companies

On January 20, the Trump administration reversed these decisions, demonstrating yet again the wholly false, political, and arbitrary nature of these lists and restrictions. They are based on no reality except the desire of the United States to eliminate the threat to US domination and merciless colonial capitalism that Cuba offers, as Cuba provides an example of sovereignty and independence, together with the social commitment to health, education, women’s and LGBTQI+ rights, and culture.

Biden’s action was a victory–for the solidarity activists, for the people of Cuba, for the hundreds of civil society organizations in Cuba ranging from the Council of Churches to the Federation of Cuban Women, from the Canine Federation of Cuba to the professional associations of every medical specialty, from the Network of Lesbian and Bisexual Women to the Barrio Network of Afro-descendants, all of whom signed a letter to Biden two months ago. It’s a victory for the thousands of organizations and noted intellectuals worldwide who signed the Ignacio Ramonet letter to Biden recently. It’s a victory for the 123 countries that demanded this action in June 2024 in a joint statement in the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council and for the 187 countries that voted against the blockade of Cuba at the UN in October of this year.

However, the illegal US blockade of Cuba remains intact, and Trump has reversed the brief symbolic progress made. We’ve got work to do.

The WILPF Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee, which meets on the second Monday of each month, invites you to help. Please email lenivreeves@gmail.com for a meeting invitation.

The US State Department maintains a list of countries they designate as countries where the government supports terrorism. The following is a summary of Cuba’s history on this list:

• Reagan’s administration put Cuba on the list in 1982.
• Obama removed Cuba in 2015.
• Trump put Cuba back on the list in his last week in office.
• Biden just took Cuba off this list in his last week in office.
• Trump reversed this on his first day in office.

This designation is not the blockade (“embargo”) that only Congress can lift. That is still in place. Bad as the blockade is, the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list has made things even worse.

With Cuba on this SSOT list, banks refuse to engage in financial transactions with Cuba, regardless of the nature of the transaction (food and medicine included). Cuba’s designation on the SSOT list causes other countries to fear retaliation by the US government for working with Cuba in some way. Cuba’s place on the SSOT list harms its infrastructure, especially the healthcare system. Inclusion on the SSOT list even impedes the shipment of humanitarian aid. Companies worldwide that want to sell medicines or food to Cuba can’t because their bank refuses to accept Cuba’s payment under threat of enormous fines from the US treasury for dealing with “terrorists.” Locking Cuba out of the international banking system is intended to cause shortages of everything and problems in every sector of the economy and people’s lives. It has been very effective in carrying out this goal and causing suffering. Cuba has endured 64 years of a US economic blockade. This suffering intensified when Trump unjustifiably put Cuba on this list of so-called State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT). President Biden continued that listing until recently when he took Cuba off the list.

The most recent State Department report on Cuba as a so-called “state sponsor of terrorism” cites only two bits of evidence for this designation. One is Cuba’s refusal to extradite Colombia’s ELN leaders after peace negotiations broke down. Still, the report admits that “pursuant to an order from Colombian President Petro, the Attorney General announced that arrest warrants would be suspended against 17 ELN commanders, including those whose extradition Colombia had previously requested.” Obviously, this reason is null and void.

The ONLY other justification noted is “Cuba also continues to harbor several US fugitives from justice wanted on charges related to political violence, many of whom have resided in Cuba for decades.”

In other words, Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism is wholly and entirely based on Cuba offering asylum to US political prisoners of the COINTELPRO war on Black America. Cuba did not sell out Assata Shakur–the person at which this justification is primarily aimed.

Additionally, Cuba has fully supported Palestine’s liberation. On Friday, January 10, Cuba, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, filed in the Registry of the Court a declaration of intervention in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).

It’s no surprise that Cuba has put liberation and ethics above everything–because that is in Cuba’s history.

Cuba has an internationalist viewpoint–and not just in healthcare, though it has done tremendous work in sending doctors to post-colonial and other countries in times of peace as well as in times of epidemics and disaster. Cuban intervention (1975-91) not only secured the independence of Angola’s government, but its actions had profound regional meaning, leading to the independence of Namibia and the destabilization of the apartheid government in South Africa as well.

Let’s go straight to Nelson Mandela, speaking in 1991 about Cuba and Angola: “The crushing defeat of the racist army in Cuito Cuanavale was a victory for all of Africa! That overwhelming defeat of the racist army in Cuito Cuanavale gave Angola the chance to enjoy peace and consolidate its own sovereignty! The defeat of the racist army allowed the fighting people of Namibia to finally achieve their independence! The decisive defeat of the aggression forces of apartheid destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor! The defeat of the apartheid army served as an inspiration to the fighting people of South Africa! Without the defeat inflicted in Cuito Cuanavale our organizations would not have been legalized! The defeat of the army racist in Cuito Cuanavale made it possible that today I can be here with you! Cuito Cuanavale is a milestone in the history of the struggle for the liberation of southern Africa! Cuito Cuanavale marks the turn in the struggle to rid the continent and our country of the scourge of apartheid!”

In her autobiography, Assata Shakur, says of the Cuban people, “They stand with their hands on their hips, acting like they own the place. I guess they do. They’re not afraid.”

Beyond its general internationalist goals and ideals, Cuba is aware that the whole world owes a debt to Africa. Not in any way incidentally, a high percentage of Cubans have some recent African descent–mainly people stolen from West Africa. When enslaved African people were brought to Cuba, Yoruba people from the area that is now northern Nigeria, as well as Carabalí people from further south, brought their religion and culture, though they could bring nothing else. These cultures developed in resistance to slavery, in escape, and in communities of free people in armed struggle–they constitute a culture of resistance and a revolutionary process. Cuba is Africa in diaspora to an extent you would never guess by looking at Miami.

There is a saying: “En Cuba, quien no tiene de congo, tiene de carabalí.” The saying means that everyone has some African heritage.

Cuba’s history is a source of strength and revolution. This culture of resistance makes it possible for Cuba to be free.

And that’s why we all need to support Cuba’s struggle for freedom.

References:

Ambassador of Cuba speaks about Cuito Cuanavale | CUBADIPLOMATICA.https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu/en/articulo/ambassador-cuba-speaks-about-cuito-cuanavale

Cuba, a Safe Place – Community Alliance. https://fresnoalliance.com/cuba-a-safe-place/

U.S. Department of State. (n.d.). Country Reports on Terrorism 2022: Chad. U.S. Department of State. https://www.state.gov/page/93/?post_type=state_report

USDOS – US Department of State (Autor): „Country Report on Terrorism 2021 – Chapter 1 – Cuba“, Dokument #2087937 – ecoi.net. https://www.ecoi.net/de/dokument/2087937.html