A member of the Massachusetts Peace Action Board, Ansara spoke to Prensa Latina about his organization's efforts behind the recent letter sent to Biden by the Massachusetts delegation to the federal Congress.
With satisfaction, he expressed that the result is "part of a campaign initiated eight months ago to unify the state of Massachusetts in calling for Cuba to be removed from the SSOT (State Sponsor of Terrorism).
The call by our representatives in the federal Congress to President Biden is the first step, he said.
"We will now ask our elected representatives and senators in the state legislature to send a similar letter to Biden, and then we will ask our governor," he anticipated.
We will work so that Massachusetts, a solidly Democratic state with some two centuries of economic, scientific, medical, social and cultural ties with Cuba, can restore those ties, first and foremost by taking Cuba off that arbitrary list, he said.
We began this campaign last June, with letters from constituents to each of our congressional representatives and senators asking them to urge President Biden to remove Cuba from the SSOT, he said.
Those missives were personally delivered to their offices in Washington on June 22, he recalled.
"Representatives Ayanna Presley and Jim McGovern listened to their constituents' complaint and initiated the current letter. We worked hard to support the letter and convince our senators and representatives to sign it," he stressed.
An article in The Hill, a publication specialized in political and congressional issues, published the letter on Tuesday, also signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and Representatives Seth Moulton, Lori Trahan and Stephen Lynch.
President Barack Obama (2009-2017) removed Cuba from the list in 2015 after admitting that Cuba is not a sponsor of terrorist acts, but a week before leaving the White House, Donald Trump reinstated the designation.
In other words, this is a grassroots movement of the people of Massachusetts, as well as the voice of our elected officials, the activist stressed.
"The important point I want to make is, in addition to solidarity with Cuba, which does exist, is that the people of Massachusetts, as well as the people of Cuba, are interested in restoring normal relations," she stressed.
For Merriam, it would be beautiful for those ties to continue, because in Massachusetts even "Cuban cigars were grown in Whately, near where I live," she added.
But "a Cuban scientist came close to creating a dengue vaccine in Harvard labs when then-President George W. Bush suspended visas in 2004," he said.
Also, "Revere Sugar, whose main supplier was Cuba, is based in Boston, near the port where ships came and went. The most important botanical garden was the joint project between Harvard in Massachusetts and Cienfuegos," he argued.
Massachusetts is a biotechnology center. So yes, solidarity but even more, Merriam noted.
According to her, "taking Cuba off the list is something Biden can do, and it is in the interest of most of the Democratic Party for him to do," because "he is falling in the polls."
"Young voters, in particular, are turning their backs on him (Biden). They won't vote for Trump. They just won't turn out to the polls. Trump is not only bad for the country. He's bad for Massachusetts, where he has no respect for us, for our traditions," he warned.
Merri Ansara carries Cuba in her heart, the daughter of a father of Arab origin and a mother of Russian descent, she grew up in an environment of love for just causes.
"I didn't arrive in Cuba until 1969, with the First Venceremos Brigade. I returned in 1972 to work at Radio Habana Cuba and the Granma newspaper, I had a daughter with a Cuban father and I was part of that family, in addition to my own".