In the wake of the outrageous decision by the outgoing Trump administration and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to, in their final days in office, designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, people and organizations around the world have condemned the move.
Revolution Square, Havana -- photo via Keith Ruffles, Wikimedia Commons
In the wake of the outrageous decision by the outgoing Trump administration and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to, in their final days in office, designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, people and organizations around the world have condemned the move.
Over the course of the last four years, Trump has worked tirelessly to undo the progress that was made towards the normalization of relations with the socialist island nation by the Obama administration. With the actions typical of his destructive regime, the United States intensified sanctions and tried to squeeze the country's economy even further. Disgracefully they did this despite the pandemic and the consequences that this might have for the Cuban people.
Meanwhile Cuba, reflecting its decades of internationalism that starkly contrasts with American foreign policy, has sent at least 53 health teams to 39 countries on four continents.
The terror designation is a clear attempt to hamstring the incoming Biden administration and make it more difficult for it to reverse the steps Trump has taken.
Reaction was swift with outrage at the obvious injustice and hypocrisy of the US action.
Gloria La Riva, 2020 US presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) tweeted:
Also on twitter the World Federation of Democratic Youth shared a thread calling the administration out:
The South African Communist Party (SACP) "condemned the United States “in the strongest terms possible” for classifying Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism":
Washington’s action is a smokescreen to tighten its unilateral and arbitrary blockade of Cuba, SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo said, adding the move is also a repeated and severe violation of international law, which has been overwhelmingly condemned by the United Nations and all peaceful people around the world.
The Party of the European Left released a statement saying it was "inadmissible that a country that has distributed 'democracy' by means of cannon shots and coups d'états dares to accuse Cuba that spreads solidarity throughout the world by means of multiple actions, among them its medical brigades, of being a sponsor of terrorism".
In the UK the Cuba Solidarity Campaign also spoke out adding "its voice to the worldwide condemnation of the outgoing Trump administration’s listing of Cuba as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’.":
Trump’s move is designed to hinder the incoming Biden administration from reprising the Obama era’s rapprochement with Havana. Obama’s decision to formally remove Cuba from the terrorism list in 2015 was an important step that led to the restoration of diplomatic relations later that year.
Returning Cuba to the list is a unilateral measure that has been widely condemned and ridiculed. It is further evidence, if any is needed, of how sections of the right-wing in the US bully those who oppose its neo-liberal policies.
The move panders to the powerful, far-right anti-Cuba groups in Florida, who wield significant power within the Republican Party and form part of Trump’s core support...
We call on the incoming Biden administration to reverse this outrageous decision, and for good people across the world to join the campaign for an end to the US’s illegal blockade. Countries need to be able to engage and cooperate with each other in a spirit of mutual respect and understanding. At this time of worldwide pandemic, friendship across frontiers is surely the only way forward.
The view that the move was done to pander to the Florida far right exile community was also shared by Ben Rhodes a former national security advisor to Obama:
The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, tweeted:
In a powerful statement headed "Hands off Cuba! The terrorists are not the peoples, but NATO and the USA!", the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) wrote:
The largely discredited US administration, just days before the end of its term, chose to re-include Cuba in the "State Sponsor of Terrorism" list, by further strengthening sanctions against the Island of the Revolution.
Cuba does not support terrorism. On the contrary, it is the victim of dozens of terrorist acts and attacks orchestrated and led by US administrations and intelligence services, which have killed 3,478 and injured 2,099 Cubans.
This despicable action, apart from the anti-communist rage of the US bourgeois political system - whose "democracy" was admired by the whole world a few days ago - expresses the Trump administration's attempt to determine the developments of the following period. What is certain is that either with such aggressive actions or with a more "compromising" policy, the US effort to undermine Cuba will continue.
The Communist Party of Greece strongly denounces the new escalation of US imperialist aggression against Cuba, demands the immediate revocation of this decision and the lifting of the barbaric economic blockade of Cuba. It expresses once again its solidarity with the heroic Cuban people, the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban Government.
The KKE was joined by other Communist and workers' parties in other countries such as Australia, Venezuela, Turkey and Paraguay.
Cuba, for its part, is remaining strong in the face of this latest attack. As Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs put it:
Cuba is not a state sponsor of terrorism, a truth recognized by all. The official and well-known policy, and the impeccable conduct of our country, is the rejection of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, particularly state terrorism, by whomever, against whomever and wherever it is committed.
Cuba is a victim of state terrorism and our population has suffered it firsthand, at the cost of 3,478 fatalities and 2,099 disabling injuries, due to acts committed by the United States government or perpetrated and sponsored from the country’s territory, with the tolerance of official authorities. Cubans repudiate with contempt any maneuver meant to manipulate such a sensitive issue, for crude purposes of political opportunism.