Trade unionists and friends of Cuba have addressed a letter to President Joe Biden and some U.S. congressmen calling for an end to sanctions against the Caribbean nation.
«Mr. President, you have the authority, every year, to discontinue harmful policies toward the Cuban people and remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism simply by not continuing to sign former President Trump’s policies, let them expire, and thus recommit our country to normalizing relations with Cuba, as when you were vice president in the Obama-Biden Administration,» says the missive promoted by organizations such as the Los Angeles-based Hands Off Cuba Committee.
«In 2021, 117 members of the U.S. Congress called for Cuba to be removed from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, noting in a letter that ‘a policy of engagement with Cuba serves U.S. interests and those of the Cuban people.’ On November 3, 2022, nearly the entire world, through the United Nations General Assembly, voted to condemn the 62-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba for the 30th time with 185 of 193 nations in favor. Only the U.S. and Israel opposed it,» the text refers.
The letter recalls several facts, among them the role of Cuban doctors in the fight against Ebola in Africa and the solidarity contribution to the training of specialists in the world made by the Latin American School of Medicine.
«Mr. President Biden can use his executive powers to rescind the 243 new sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration, remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, and pressure Congress to pass legislation to remove aspects of the embargo codified in law, thus removing all sanctions (…), allowing U.S. citizens to travel freely to Cuba and restoring normal business and trade relations between our two countries under international law. Please act justly and humanely and stop punishing the people of Cuba,» the message concludes.
