Cuba condemns US report on terrorism

Dishonest distortions and rationalizations lacking in legitimacy

     The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on December 2, 2023, declaring that the U.S. State Department report on terrorism of November 30, 2023, is slanderous and dishonest, recycling arguments that have been rejected by the international community and are lacking in legitimacy even in the United States itself.  The Cuban Statement maintains that the U.S. list of countries that are supposedly sponsoring terrorism is politically motivated, in that it enables the imposition of “measures of economic coercion against countries with which the U.S. government has political disagreements.”

     Here is the full text of the December 2, 2023, Statement released by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects in the strongest terms the slanderous reference against Cuba by the U.S. State Department, in its most recent report on terrorism with respect to the year 2022, released on November 30, 2023.

The elements set forth in the report dishonestly recycle the pretexts used to justify the inclusion of Cuba in the State Department's arbitrary and discredited list of States that supposedly sponsor terrorism, which serves to impose measures of economic coercion against countries with which the United States Government has political disagreements.  This arbitrary characterization of Cuba is overwhelmingly rejected by the international community and by numerous political and social organizations within the United States itself.

The U.S. government authorities, especially its law enforcement agencies, have more than enough information to confirm Cuba's firm and clear commitment to confronting the scourge of terrorism.  The official bilateral exchanges between the two countries on the specific issue of terrorism confirm this.  Cuba's commitment is absolute and categorical against all terrorist acts, methods and practices in all their forms and manifestations by whomever, against whomever, and wherever they are perpetrated, whatever their motivations, including those in which governments are directly or indirectly involved.

Cuba will continue its efforts in the fight against terrorism, of which it has been a victim, at the cost of 3,478 deaths and 2,099 disabilities, all as a result of actions organized, financed and perpetrated mainly from the territory of the United States by individuals and organizations operating there with the tolerance, complicity and protection of the Government of that country.

     The inclusion of Cuba on the spurious and illegitimate list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism has serious consequences for Cuba.  As was stated in the Cuban (July 2023) report to the UN General Assembly in support of the Cuban resolution to end the U.S. blockade of Cuba, the inclusion of Cuba on the illegitimate list created a situation in which “numerous companies and financial institutions around the world refused to operate with Cuba out of fear of reprisals by the U.S. government.”  The inclusion of Cuba on the spurious list, combined with the application of U.S. laws that prohibit companies and banks in third countries from engaging in commercial and financial transactions with Cuba, created a situation in which “dozens of banks suspended their operations with [Cuba], including transfers for the purchase of food, medicines, fuels, materials, parts and other goods.”

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     For those many persons in the world who are morally and/or politically opposed to the U.S. blockade of Cuba, expressions of opposition ought not be superficial.  We ought to strive to deepen our understanding of the meaning of Cuban socialism, arriving to appreciation that Cuba represents an advance in human dignity and in the development of more democratic political structures, a more productive economy oriented to human needs, and more humane cultural values.  And it is precisely for this reason that the forces of imperialism are so determined to destroy it, easily resorting to the manipulation of words and the invention of facts.  And arriving to appreciate that Cuba herself is part of a worldwide process of alternative world construction, which its leaders have characterized as a war between decadent imperialism and alternative anti-imperialist construction.  Understood in this way, it can be seen that when the end of the blockade comes, it will be simply one step in the anti-imperialist construction of a pluripolar world, more just and sustainable.

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