“Lifting the sanctions is not an endorsement of the Cuban government’s policies, but rather a recognition that the current approach has failed the Cuban people,” said Cohen, a member of the House of Representatives from Tennessee, in the letter. As he wrote, “the best way to be good neighbors is to cultivate more dialogue, travel and interaction between Cubans and Americans.”

He stressed that “for over 60 years, the US embargo has caused profound damage to the economy and people of Cuba. (…) The tightening of sanctions under President Trump, including those caused by the SSOT designation, is now one of the key factors driving the deepening of Cuba’s humanitarian crisis,” he noted.

Restrictions on foreign assistance and finance, as well as broken ties by companies and financial institutions that do not want to risk being associated with ‘a sponsor of terrorism,’ have helped cripple the Cuban economy and isolate the Cuban people from the global financial network, he wrote.

As a result, the growth of the private sector has been severely hampered and many Cubans abroad face difficulties in sending money to their families at home, said the legislator referring to the impact of economic restrictions on the increase in migration in Cuba.

He stated that Trump’s reinstatement of the SSOT on the basis that Cuba supports terrorism has no merit, and recalled that the Obama-Biden administration removed Cuba from the list in 2015 after admitting “that the basis for the designation was unfounded.”

Cohen considered that this decision, which he described as “extremely popular,” helped improve relations between the Cuban and American people. “I had the opportunity to travel to Cuba with President Obama in 2016 and I experienced a strong sense of goodwill toward Americans and toward President Obama,” the congressman said.

Cohen said that after his trip he returned inspired “by the possibilities of collaboration and growth of our two countries.”

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