Victoria, September 21st. Nearly 600 parliamentarians from 73 countries around the world called on the United States of America government to remove Cuba from the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism”.
The parliamentarians wrote a joint letter, coordinated and published by Progressive International (PI), in which they condemn the designation of Cuba by the United States as a “State sponsor of terrorism” as “cynical, cruel and a clear violation of international law.”
The United States´s State Sponsor of Terrorism designation, withdrawn in 2015 after a thorough assessment by the Obama Administration, was reapplied to Cuba in the final days of the Trump presidency in 2021. Countries on the list face extreme sanctions that hinder access to medicines and food.
The signatories, brought together by Progressive International, advocate “the urgency of removing Cuba from the list of ‘State sponsors of terrorism’ in the name of dignity, decency and the integrity of the UN Charter.” According to UN experts, the designation has undermined “fundamental human rights, including the right to food, the right to health, the right to education, economic and social rights, the right to life and the right to development.”
The signatories argue that the designation “is cruel because it is designed to maximize the suffering of the people of Cuba, stifling their economy, displacing their families and even restricting the flow of humanitarian aid.”
Cuba is grateful for the firm support and gesture of solidarity of all the undersigned parliamentarians, among them that of Honorable Sebastien Pillay, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly of the Republic of Seychelles, with whom, as well as with his political party, United Seychelles, Cuba has developed historical relations of friendship, cooperation and political-diplomatic dialogue for more than 40 years.
The full text of the letter is published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba.
#TumbaElBloqueo #DropTheBlockade #FueraDeLaLista
(Embassy of Cuba in Seychelles)