The Camilo Cienfuegos Cuba-Aragon Association held its annual general assembly this weekend, which ended with a resolution calling for Cuba to be removed from the list of “countries that sponsor terrorism” because “the offer… , to host in Havana, was included in this list “Dialogue between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian authorities”.
“This fact, which has acted as a guarantor country for the peace processes in Colombia, deserves no more than a title of manager in these dialogues, for this reason we repeat a request that has recently been made internationally,” emphasizes Camilo Cienfuego’s Cuba-Aragon Association.
Last November, various countries and international organizations called Cuba’s inclusion on the list of “states that sponsor terrorism” “unfair and inhumane” and, in the United Nations Assembly, condemned the harm it was causing to its citizens.
Argentina’s representative, María del Carmen Squeff, expressed her country’s disagreement with the classification of the Antilles country as an “alleged state sponsor of terrorism”. Aside from being an unsupported categorization, “it adds to the intimidating effect of the restrictions associated with the blockade and hampers this nation’s ability to develop trade and financial ties,” he said.
Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the classification was “nonsense” and represented “an additional impact on the people and government of the Antilles by preventing financial operations and other transactions.”
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), with the vote of Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan Yashar Aliyev, rejected this act, considering it an “unfounded accusation”.
On behalf of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the Ambassador of the Bahamas, Stan Smith, asked for Cuba to be removed from this list, which “further aggravates the effects of the blockade and poses an obstacle to recovery from the damage left by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
For her part, the representative of the Central American integration system said that the “arbitrary inclusion” of the Cuban nation in this category “aggravates its difficulties in integrating into world trade and conducting financial operations, causing the conclusion of contracts and the loss of Cuba’s banking relationships, with high levels costs for the citizens”.
On the other hand, some twenty former presidents and former prime ministers of Latin America have called on the head of the United States Executive Branch, Joe Biden, to remove Cuba from the list of “countries that promote terrorism” and to “return to the development of the normalization plan on which Barack Obama’s administration agreed in 2014″.
In this line they point out that Cuba was included in the list because it “supports the peace process of the Colombian state” and “aligns itself with the signed protocols in its capacity as international guarantor of the same”.
The letter is signed by former presidents such as Brazilian Dilma Rousseff, Uruguayan Pepe Mújica, Colombian Juan Manuel Santos, Ecuadorian Rafael Correa, Bolivian Evo Morales and Panamanian Martín Torrijos. Likewise, in the letter, they convey to Biden their “deep concern at the delicate situation in which the Cuban people find themselves.”
“It suffers from the enormous difficulties in the supply of medicines, the arrival of humanitarian aid, the restrictions on financial services, the arrival of tourists and third-party investments,” they write, emphasizing that this situation has been aggravated by the passage of Hurricane Ian and its “devastating effect” on the island.
For all these reasons, these former leaders are asking the US President to “arrange whatever is necessary to lift these restrictions that hit the most vulnerable.” In this sense, they argue that the restrictions also affect the Cuban-American people, since “they are prevented from visiting their relatives” and “they limit opportunities for economic recovery”.
These former leaders are calling on United States President Joe Biden to consider and heed the message that “has surfaced in various sectors of civil society in the region not to return to the pre-pandemic world” and to overcome “the current difficult situation threatening world peace” and affirming the condition of Latin America and the Caribbean as an “area of peace on the planet”.
“Aren’t the reasons presented by the international community enough?” asks the Camilo Cienfuegos Cuba-Aragon Association.