Former world leaders and presidents call on Joe Biden to remove Cuba from so-called terrorist list

A group of 35 former presidents and prime ministers have sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, demanding that he remove Cuba from the list of countries that, according to Washington, sponsor terrorism.

The news was announced by the former head of state of Colombia, Ernesto Samper (in office from 1994 to 1998), who declared that it makes no sense that a country like Cuba, which has worked for world peace and helped his nation sign the first agreements to end a conflict of many years, is linked to terrorism.

He also denounced that, as a consequence of this classification, the Cuban people are subjected to inhuman punitive measures due to the obstacle that this designation represents for access to medicines, food and basic living conditions.

The letter sent to Biden acknowledges that, in May of this year, the State Department made the decision to remove Cuba from the list of nations that do not cooperate in the fight against terrorism, but regretted that, in a contradictory manner, U.S. authorities insist on keeping it on the list of States allegedly sponsoring terrorism.

"How can it be said that a country cooperates in the global fight against terrorism and, at the same time, accuse it of openly supporting it?" the letter questioned.

“Without any proof, Cuba is accused of having links with terrorist activities of which it has been a victim and harsh sanctions are imposed on it due to this presumption that are directly hitting its population and permanently unbalancing its economy,” it added.

Furthermore, the letter continued, maintaining Cuba's inclusion on the list of States sponsoring terrorism constitutes a coercive measure that is difficult to justify in the 21st century when equality between States must be a reality.

The signatories added that this unjust decision also affects the Universal Charter of Human Rights, an ethical pillar of contemporary international relations, by impacting the most vulnerable sectors of the population hit by the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, aggravated by the lack of medicines and equipment.

The difficult situation that the Cuban economy is going through can be explained, among other factors, by the measures applied by the United States and condemned for their unilaterality by the UN system, and by many people and institutions in different scenarios and opportunities, they stressed.

In another part of the text, they asserted that the Cuban government is seriously committed against terrorism and in favor of peace in the region and the world.

The letter is signed by the former president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero; former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, former Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and thirty other well-known politicians.