Washington, Jan 6 (Prensa Latina) The designation of Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism is even more insensitive and unjustified today, when Cuba is suffering the worst economic crisis in its contemporary history as a result of U.S. policy.
So warned an article published in The Hill newspaper when referring to the coercive measure that three years ago this month, reimposed by then President Donald Trump “as a farewell just days before leaving office.”
Trump placed Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT), which triggered a series of new sanctions against the island nation, the text underlined.
The author of the paper said that last month members of Congress were furious to learn that, despite assurances to the contrary, President Joe Biden has not even begun the process of reviewing that decision. He stressed that the blockade against Cuba that has been in place for more than 60 years and the U.S. sanctions have deprived the island’s economy of more than $130 billion.
This policy has also hindered civilians’ access to essential goods such as food, fuel and medicines, systematically undermining the fundamental human rights of the Cuban people.
In 2014,” he added, “President Barack Obama broke with half a century of systematic hostility and provided some relief to the Cuban economy, including the elimination of the SSOT designation (in 2015) that President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) provided during the Cold War.
While Trump destroyed these fragile gains, many Cubans and Americans alike saw Biden’s election as an opportunity to return to the path laid out by his former running mate, he recalled.
But despite campaign promises, Biden has proven to be more Trump than Obama, and the SSOT designation is a particularly egregious case in point, he emphasized.
In effect, the SSOT extends U.S. financial restrictions internationally, cutting the Cuban people off from the global financial system, considered the author of the article titled ‘Cuba’s inclusion on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism has had damaging consequences.’
But the SSOT designation is not only deeply damaging. It is also baseless, the columnist asserted.
In fact, senior officials in both Democratic and Republican administrations have described the SSOT label as “bogus” and “absurd.” Colin Powell’s former chief of staff called it “a fiction we have created…to bolster the justification for the blockade,” he explained.
However, the Biden administration has maintained Trump’s baseless designation. It is unclear why.
And Democrats have little strategic justification for allowing a small group of Florida hardliners to hold their policy decisions hostage.
Meanwhile, nearly every country in the world opposes the blockade. Latin American leaders in particular have criticized U.S. policy toward Cuba, which is seen as a manifestation of the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine.
The majority of voters, both Democrats and Republicans, want an end to the blockade.
(Taken from PL)
