“We ask for a definitive end of the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba, as well as the Caribbean island’s immediate removal from Washington’s infamous and unilateral State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list,” said the text, which was delivered to Prensa Latina in La Paz.
Bolivian artists and intellectuals recalled that on May 15, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the elimination of Cuba from the list of countries “not fully cooperating in the fight against terrorism,” according to Washington.
“Therefore, they recognized that efforts are being made in the fight against terrorism,” the document warned.
It indicated that, however, in a contradictory and opportunistic attitude, the White House decided to keep Cuba in the SSOT list, “a place to which President Donald Trump arbitrarily confined it in 2021, a position maintained over time by Joe Biden.”
The letter explains that being on that list prevents Cuba from opening accounts abroad, making transfers or bank deposits for purchases and sales, which hinders exports and imports, as well as accessing credits to international organizations.
It pointed out that another harm against the Cuban people consists of not being able to carry out their diplomatic activities normally, buying fuel, contracting shipping transport, signing tourist agreements with cruise ships and for people to receive remittances from their relatives abroad.
The reprisals introduced by Trump veto academic, cultural and sports exchange agreements with any US institution, among many other prohibitions, the REDH noted.
The intellectuals and artists evoked the memorandum written in April 1960 by State Department official Lester Mallory, who, after recognizing the majority support of the people for the Revolution led by its historic leader, Fidel Castro, proposed reducing support through disenchantment and dissatisfaction through economic and material hardships.
“A line of action that, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government,” the memorandum said.
The letter reiterates the demand for a definitive end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, as well as the Caribbean island’s immediate removal from the infamous SSOT.
jg/ro/jpm
