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Paris, April 8, 2025. This Tuesday, during the 221st session of the UNESCO Executive Board, Cuba denounced the threats to peace and international cooperation faced by the Organization in the current global context and the effects of the U.S. government's hostile policy on the island for more than 60 years.

“In light of an increasingly dangerous and challenging international scenario, a stronger multilateral commitment is urgently required,” stated Ambassador Dulce María Buergo Rodríguez, president of the Cuban National Commission for UNESCO and representative of Cuba to the Council.

In this context, Cuba denounced the effects of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed and intensified by the government of the United States, the main obstacle to the country's development, as well as the negative impact of the inclusion of the nation in the unilateral list of States that allegedly sponsor terrorism. On the other hand, the Caribbean nation reaffirmed its solidarity with the Palestinian people, victims of more than 75 years of flagrant violations of their legitimate rights as a nation, and made an urgent appeal to reach the only possible solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the creation of two independent states.

On 31 January 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he communicated to the U.S. Congress the revocation of the suspension of the possibility of filing lawsuits in U.S. courts under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.

Likewise, it approved the reinstatement of the List of Restricted Cuban Entities, with which entities or persons in the United States are prohibited from carrying out transactions, under penalty of being fined and having their assets frozen.  It informed the decision to add the Cuban remittance processing company, Orbit S.A., to that list.

These are not unexpected actions.  They are steps that were missing to undo the late, although positive, decisions announced by President Joseph Biden on January 14.