12 Jan MEDICC Decries Trump Administration Designation of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terror

January 12, 2021—MEDICC condemns the Trump administration’s designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, a decision that is as ironic as it is outrageous.  It comes at the US President’s eleventh hour, as Congress considers charges that he incited the violent mob that breached the Capitol just days ago.

The pandemic takes the White House action to deeper levels of irony: a denialist president who refused to provide leadership to stem COVID-19 has put a choke hold on 11 million Cubans whose data reveal a health system with a much better record of keeping them safe from the virus. We are witness to thousands of Cuban health professionals volunteering to fight COVID-19 in 40 countries, while this White House clings to vaccine nationalism. From the start, it has been clear that only global cooperation can roll back the disease spread, that our countries also need to learn from each other. But Trump has done the opposite when it comes to Cuba. Not only has he refused to lift US sanctions during the pandemic, as urged by the UN, but he has piled on another 130 onerous restrictions that hurt Cubans and further infringe on US citizens’ right to travel and engage with people on the island.

There is no compelling factual basis for the decision to place Cuba on the US list of states that sponsor terrorism. This is just one more heartless and vindictive act that, taken in the final days of this White House, constitutes a blatant effort to compromise the ability of the incoming Biden-Harris administration to put US-Cuba relations on a more positive footing.

The Cuban people, already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and a deep economic crisis, will be made to suffer even more with the resulting additional limits on travel, trade and medical-scientific exchange. MEDICC calls on the Biden administration to immediately begin the required review to overturn this shameless act.