BIDEN, REMOVE CUBA FROM YOUR SO-CALLED ‘STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM’ LIST NOW!

A Statement by Friends Of Cuba Against the U.S. Blockade – Vancouver

The U.S. blockade and hostilities against Cuba intensified in January 2021 when then U.S. President Donald Trump re-designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, intensifying the stranglehold of the blockade on Cuba.

On May 15, 2024 the U.S. State Secretary provided Congress with a list of countries which “do not fully cooperate with the United States antiterrorist efforts for the 2023 calendar year.” While previously Cuba had been included on this arbitrary and unfounded list, this year Cuba has been removed from this list.

However, Cuba remains on the U.S. State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) and subjected to the economic consequences of being on this list. Besides the fact that the U.S. government has absolutely no basis or authority to declare Cuba as a “sponsor of terrorism”, the fact that the U.S. State Department has kept Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list while admitting that Cuba cooperates in antiterrorist efforts is even more contradictory.

As the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms in their recent statement, the SSOT list “is nothing but a totally unilateral and unfounded list, whose sole purpose is to smear sovereign States and serve as a pretext for imposing coercive economic sanctions on them, as those ruthlessly imposed on Cuba.”

This indefensible and unfair designation increased the restriction on imports into Cuba affecting Cubans ability to acquire fuel, agricultural products, food, medicine and much more. Cuba has also been blocked from trading in the globally dominant U.S. dollar, forcing it to pay higher than market value for all its imports.

Friends of Cuba Against the U.S. Blockade – Vancouver has been organizing a monthly Car Caravan for Cuba in coordination with the Puentes de Amor campaign based in the U.S., to protest these unfair genocidal policies of the United States against Cuba.

Together with the NY/NJ Cuba Si, Friends of Cuba Against the U.S. Blockade – Vancouver have also launched a postcard campaign to demand President Biden remove Cuba from the so-called State Sponsors of Terrorism list. This campaign was endorsed by IFCO/Pastors for Peace, Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba, Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee and the European Campaign Unblock Cuba.

Since then, thousands of postcards have been shipped to friends of Cuba across the United States, Canada and Europe – and have been sent on to the White House demanding: Remove Cuba from the SSOT List!

Cuba has a right to exist in peace without the world’s largest economy blockading it from the world market. From Vancouver, Canada, we will continue to build and unite with others until the U.S. government ends its inhuman blockade on Cuba and removes Cuba off the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

Let Cuba Live!