By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 23, 2024
The world’s leading military spender, arms dealer, foreign base builder, opponent of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, hold-out on basic human rights and disarmament treaties, and fueler of the wars in Palestine and Ukraine has removed Cuba from its list of nations that “do not fully cooperate with the United States antiterrorist efforts for the 2023 calendar year,” and yet — nonsensically — kept Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. So, Cuba is sponsoring terrorism AND fully cooperating with the United States’ supposed anti-terrorism efforts — presumably including the outrageously counterproductive ongoing War on Terrorism. Except that, as far as we know, and judging by the total lack of any actual allegations from the U.S. government (other than naming a likely nonexistent attack after Cuba’s capital) Cuba is NOT sponsoring terrorism.
Cuba’s presence on the state sponsors of terrorism list is, like many U.S. policies, a reversal of what was policy under President Obama, reversed by President Trump and kept unchanged through the Trump-Biden era, despite promises otherwise that were made by candidate Biden four years ago.
The U.S. government harbors terrorists living openly in Florida and over more than 50 years has blown up buildings and planes in Cuba, murdered in Cuba, and introduced human and animal diseases to Cuba. When I visited Cuba some years ago, I saw museums full of the gear Cuba had seized from the hapless CIA. But I also saw that Cuban people were delighted to meet Americans and didn’t blame us one bit for our government just as they’d no doubt like not to be blamed for their own.
Their government (deeply flawed, like most, and deeply admirable, like few) has a theory shared by many observers about why the U.S. government hates Cuba so much: it doesn’t want us to see that even a poor country can provide universal healthcare, education, and a guaranteed income.
Be that as it may, the U.S. government has violated the Geneva Conventions for most of those conventions’ existence by punishing the entire population of Cuba with an embargo. As one commentator pointed out in January of this year:
“The U.S. embargo of Cuba has been in place for over 60 years. In that time, its primary effect has been the immiseration of the Cuban people. U.S. sanctions have starved the Cuban economy of over $130 billion; hindered civilian access to essential goods like food, fuel and medicine; exacerbated hunger and poverty; and systematically undermined fundamental human rights. The evidence that broad economic sanctions harm civilians in targeted countries is overwhelming. Indeed, that is arguably the intent.”
What justifies the sanctions? The unjustified designation of State Sponsor of Terrorism (or “SSOT”):
“Designation as an SSOT comes with a host of sanctions, including restrictions on foreign assistance, finance and defense products. But the worst impacts are felt through over-compliance; businesses and financial institutions, including many from outside the United States, often elect to sever all connections to Cuba rather than risk being sanctioned themselves for association with “a sponsor of terror.” In effect, the SSOT extends U.S. financial restrictions internationally, cutting off the Cuban people from the global financial system. Cuban entrepreneurs unable to access finance, faith groups barred from donating humanitarian goods, Cubans abroad denied bank accounts or prevented from sending money to their families back home — these are some of the documented impacts of the designation. In no small part due to the tightening of sanctions under Trump, Cuba is now facing its worst humanitarian crisis in decades. In turn, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have left the island in search of economic security in the United States.”
The U.S. government should immediately cease its sadistic punishment of the Cuban people — like the Palestinian and so many other peoples — and stop embarassing itself with all talk of supposedly opposing its own primary activity.
The U.S. government should give Cuba back the land it has stolen for its law-evading death-camp at Guantanamo.
The U.S. government should begin to set things right by passing repeal of the Monroe Doctrine.
