Brazilian figures call for Cuba’s exclusion from terrorism list

Brazilian personalities of art, culture and politics demand today that the United States remove Cuba from its unilateral list of countries sponsoring terrorism, and put an end to the blockade against the island.

Signed among others by renowned writer, composer and singer Chico Buarque, and literary figure and liberation theologian Frei Betto, in their statement the group indicates that the U.S. State Department announced on May 15 that it was including Cuba in its 2023 report on nations cooperating in the fight against terrorism.

However, the 35 signatories of the statement warn, Washington did not remove the Caribbean island from the spurious list of alleged sponsors of terrorism.

Although officials of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden are aware of the island’s efforts in the fight against terrorism and for peace in Latin America, the Caribbean and the world, “the White House did nothing to remove Cuba from that list, from which it should never have been included”, the signatories point out.

They denounce that the permanence of Cuba on the list is “an infamy that has been going on for a long time, just like the blockade that has been trying to subdue the heroic Caribbean island for more than 60 years”.

The Brazilian professionals of art, culture and politics emphasize in their request to the United States to withdraw the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and demand the lifting of the economic, commercial and financial siege that now more than ever weighs on the small nation.