Cuba taken off U.S. "State Sponsor of Terrorism" list

The Biden administration has lifted Cuba's state sponsor of terror designation in the final days of the president's term.

The U.S. president has signed an official certification to remove Cuba from the U.S. State Department’s “State Sponsor of Terrorism” list. The document, dated January 14, 2025, ends a period of arbitrarily listing, initiated in the final days of the Trump administration and maintained all four years under President Biden.

With only six governing days remaining, the Biden regime has not indicated whether the U.S. will rescind any part of the nearly sixty-three year long blockade against its neighbor, despite the hardship created on the island as a result of the externally-induced economic crisis.

In response to the revocation, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) released a statement congratulating Washington for its move in the right direction. Moreover, it thanked the “contribution and sensitivity” of all who stood behind the Cuban government and people in their “sustained and firm demand” to be removed from the list.

The statement, translated below, went on to emphasize that much remains to be done to fully normalize relations between the two countries.

The United States is taking steps in the right direction, but the blockade remains.

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba

On January 14, 2025, the United States government announced the decision to: 1) exclude Cuba from the State Department’s list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism; 2) use the presidential prerogative to prevent action being taken in U.S. courts against lawsuits filed under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act; and 3) eliminate the list of restricted Cuban entities that designates a group of institutions with which U.S. citizens and institutions are prohibited from carrying out financial transactions, which has had an effect on third countries.

Despite its limited nature, this is a decision in the right direction and in line with the sustained and firm demand of the government and people of Cuba, and with the broad, emphatic and reiterated call of numerous governments, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, of Cubans living abroad, of political, religious and social organizations, and of numerous political figures in the United States and other countries. The Cuban government thanks everyone for their contribution and sensitivity.

This decision puts an end to specific coercive measures that, along with many others, cause serious damage to the Cuban economy, with a severe effect on the population. This is and has been a topic present in Cuba’s official exchanges with the United States government.

It is important to note that the economic blockade and a good part of the dozens of coercive measures that were put into effect since 2017 to reinforce it remain in force, with full extraterritorial effect and in violation of International Law and the human rights of all Cubans.

To cite just a few examples, the illegal and aggressive persecution of fuel supplies that Cuba has a legitimate right to import continues. The cruel and absurd persecution of Cuba’s legitimate international medical cooperation agreements with other countries continues, thus threatening to deprive millions of people of health services and limiting the potential of the Cuban public health system. International financial transactions by Cuba or by any national that is related to a Cuban remain under prohibition and retaliation. Merchant ships that dock in Cuba also continue to be threatened.

On the other hand, all US citizens, companies and subsidiary entities of a US corporation are prohibited from trading with Cuba or Cuban entities, except for very restricted and regulated exceptions. Harassment, intimidation and threats against nationals of any country that proposes to trade with Cuba or invest in this country continues to be official US policy. Cuba remains a destination that the US government prohibits its citizens from visiting.

The economic war remains and persists in posing the fundamental obstacle to the development and recovery of the Cuban economy with a high human cost for the population, and continues to be a stimulus for emigration.

The decision announced today by the United States corrects, in a very limited way, aspects of a cruel and unjust policy. It is a correction that occurs now, on the verge of a change of government, when it should have been materialized years ago, as an elementary act of justice, without demanding anything in return and without fabricating pretexts to justify inaction, if it desired to act correctly. To exclude Cuba from the arbitrary list of States sponsoring terrorism, it should have been enough to recognize the truth, the total absence of reasons for such a designation and the exemplary performance of our country in the fight against terrorism, which even agencies of the United States government have admitted

It is known that, in the future, the government of the US could reverse the measures adopted today. This has occurred on other occasions, signaling a lack of legitimacy, ethics, consistency and reason in its behavior against Cuba.

To do so, American politicians do not usually stop to find honest justifications, as long as the vision described in 1960 by then Assistant Undersecretary of State Lester Mallory, and the goal he outlined of subduing Cubans by means of economic siege, misery, hunger and desperation, remain in force. They will not stop to justify themselves as long as this government continues to be incapable of recognizing and accepting Cuba’s right to self-determination, and as long as it remains willing to assume the political cost of the international isolation caused by its genocidal and illegal policy of economic asphyxiation against Cuba.

Cuba will continue to confront and denounce this policy of economic war, the interference programs and the operations of disinformation and discrediting of the Cuban people.

1 thought on “Cuba taken off U.S. “State Sponsor of Terrorism” list”

  1. Pingback: Trump reverses Biden’s reversal: Cuba back on US State Sponsor Of Terrorism list - Kawsachun News

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