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January 20th, 2021
Open letter to US President Joe Biden
from personalities, politicians and organizations in Denmark – an appeal for propriety and respect for the UN Charter, the UN General Assembly and international law.
Establish normal relations to Cuba – Stop the blockade
From Denmark, we wish you and Kamala Harris congratulations on your inauguration as President and Vicepresident.
After four years with Donald Trump in the White House, there are high hopes that propriety, accountability, common sense, humanity and respect in international relations can become a hallmark of US policy.
We, the signatories of this appeal, wish to express our hope that the United States, under your leadership, will normalize relations with Cuba and take steps to lift the blockade.
It has been painful, and it has been highly provocative to witness the now former President Trump's policy towards Cuba.
People in Cuba have suffered hard under the effects of the countless hardenings of the US-blockade against Cuba. It is a policy that has affected the individual Cuban on living conditions, and it is a policy that has affected many US citizens with families in Cuba. It has also affected third countries' – including Denmark's - connections, trade with, investments in and entire cooperation with Cuba.
The blockade should have been lifted a long time ago. It is inhuman, illegal and unproductive. It harms people inside and outside Cuba, it violates the UN Charter and international law, and it also does not bring any of the goals that the blockade was supposed to promote closer to realization!
We, who sign this appeal, looked with sympathy at the steps taken by then-President Barack Obama and then-Vicepresident Joe Biden (!) towards a normalization of US-Cuba relations as well as the administrative easing of the blockade.
We have been delighted when you two – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – during the election campaign and after the election victory have indicated that you want to change US policy towards Cuba.
In our view, there is an urgent need to restore the situation that existed four years ago, when the partners Obama and Biden left the White House – and from that point move towards a definitive lifting of the blockade, such as a massive majority of the world's countries year after year, imposes on the United States with its resolutions adopted in the UN General Assembly.
We recall that 187 countries voted in favor of lifting the blockade in the most recent vote in November 2019, while Trump's blockade-policy was only supported by the votes of two countries in addition to the United States' own vote.
Signed by:
Villy Søvndal (SF), former Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ole Nors Nielsen, member of 3F's main board
Jørn Lehmann Petersen (S), Regional Councilor Region South
Villo Sigurdsson, former mayor of Copenhagen Municipality
Sven Tarp, professor at Aarhus University
Karsten Hønge (SF) member of the Folketing
Pernille Frahm, former member of the Folketing for SF
Ellen Ryg Olsen, author and physician
Johannes Lind, pastor emeritur
Hans Nebel, pastor emeritus
Steffen Hjøllund, chief physician
Susanne Hansen, chairman of the service group 3F Randers
Claus Westergreen, chairman of 3F BJMF in Copenhagen
Jørgen Petersen, Communist Party
Saime Bilen, Kurdish Women's Association in Denmark
Aksel V. Carlsen, social scientist Ph.D.
Tove Jensen, the association DEMOS
Pedro Juarez, Patria Grande Group in Denmark
Lars Bohn, spokesman for the Lula Livre campaign in Denmark
John Graversgard, Chairman of the Cooperation Workers-Academics, Aarhus
Ivan Braad Mortensen, chairman of the Building Group, 3F Midtjylland
Morten Rasmussen, Deputy Chairman of 3F Transport, Logistics and Construction, Aarhus
Sven-Erik Simonsen, chairman of the Danish-Cuban Association on behalf of all members of the board
@CubaMINREX
Embacuba Dinamarca