As we informed, the Biden administration announced Tuesday that it has removed Cuba from the list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism. To go deep into the relevance of this announcement, we contact analyst Layan Fuleihan, from the people's forum. Hi Layan, thank you for your time here in from the south.
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00:00And as we informed, the Biden administration announced Tuesday that it has removed Cuba
00:05from the list of countries that allegedly sponsored terrorism.
00:08And to go deep into the relevance of this announcement, we contact analyst
00:12Layane Fuleihan from the People's Forum.
00:14Hi, Layane, and thank you for your time here from the South.
00:18Thank you so much for having me.
00:20For four years, the island has been included on this list,
00:24despite there being no evidence that would justify its inclusion.
00:28But what does this list mean?
00:32This list has no meaning at this point.
00:34I mean, the fact that Cuba is on this list means the list has no meaning.
00:38The greatest terrorist sponsors of terrorism in the world right now,
00:41we can see them with our own eyes.
00:43It is the United States and Israel who have been massacring
00:46the people of Gaza, the children of Gaza for over 15 months.
00:51The fact that Cuba is included on this list just goes to show that the list
00:55is a political tool used by the United States to try to isolate the countries
01:00that it is waging hybrid war against.
01:03So the fact that Biden took so long to take Cuba off the list,
01:07it's a great thing that Cuba is off the list,
01:09but Biden should have done it the first day that he came into office.
01:14So President Miguel Diaz-Canel assured today that this measure has had
01:18a high cost for the country.
01:20How does that translate into the real impacts of this list
01:24on the lives of Cuban ordinary people?
01:28Well, this list adds another layer to the very intense blockade
01:35that has been imposed on the people of Cuba for over 60 years.
01:40This list makes it an extra level of difficulty for Cuba to be able to
01:45make any financial transactions in the international sphere
01:49and to work with any other entities in any kind of exchange
01:54in purchasing necessary items like food and medicine.
01:58And it creates a level of intimidation because the United States is indicating with this list
02:04that they also will take action against those who do work with Cuba.
02:09And it's, of course, very complex and very varied in the economic and legal spheres,
02:14but it creates an environment in which other parties and other countries
02:19think twice about making exchanges with Cuba because they do not want to incur
02:24the consequences that the United States would impose on them.
02:27This is a criminal level of blockade.
02:31It is designed to cut off the Cuban economy from the global economy.
02:38And it has already been said very clearly since the beginning
02:43that this is a tool used by the United States to try to starve the Cuban people into submission.
02:49It has not worked for decades.
02:52Precisely.
02:52And also the removal of Cuba from the U.S. unilateral list of countries
02:56responsible for terrorism allegedly is a victory, of course, for the Cuban people.
03:01But the struggle continues.
03:03What does this decision mean just a few days before the integration of President Donald Trump,
03:08who actually re-included Cuba on this list in his previous administration?
03:13And also let's recall that the blockade is yet very much in force.
03:17So what does that mean?
03:21Well, we can take this as a victory for the Cuban people and also a sign that the sustained
03:29grassroots pressure in the campaign to remove Cuba from the list from the peoples of the world
03:35inside the United States, all who stand in solidarity with the Cuban people and across
03:40the Americas and across the world, there has been a sustained campaign
03:43to remove Cuba from the list and lift the blockade.
03:47This is one victory on that path.
03:49But we know that the struggle does not end here.
03:52We have to continue advocating for the lifting of the entire blockade.
03:58It is in no one's interest to have this blockade.
04:00It is not in the interest of the United States people for there to be a blockade.
04:04Cuba is a neighboring country with much to share with us and much to exchange.
04:08And it is the right of neighborly people to be able to
04:12have international solidarity and to exchange.
04:15So the struggle will continue.
04:18Biden, in a very cowardly move, waited to the last week of his administration
04:23to do what he could have done the first day that he came into office.
04:26In fact, he could have done it with no real opposition because it was a policy of the
04:32Obama administration.
04:33The Obama administration was moving insufficiently, but moving towards
04:38more openings with Cuba.
04:40Biden could have said, we will undo what the Trump administration did.
04:44But he did not.
04:45He kept all of the Trump additional coercive sanctions.
04:49He kept Cuba on the list, which Trump was the one to first bring Cuba on.
04:58And he waited until this moment.
04:59Trump is coming back into office and we will continue advocating that Cuba remain off the
05:05list and that we go forward with the lifting of the blockade.
05:09But of course, Biden has basically left it open for Trump to make a decision
05:13before Cuba can really recover economically from this brief moment of being off of the list.
05:20So we hope that Trump does not return Cuba to the list.
05:24But we have to notice that Biden should have done this four years ago.
05:30What's the role that the activism from the U.S. is going to play in this moment of uncertainty
05:37ahead of the upcoming new government in the U.S. for Cuba?
05:44Well, the people of the United States are going to continue calling for friendship and
05:53cooperation with the people of Cuba, with Cuba, with the country of Cuba, our neighboring country.
06:02There is a level of consciousness around Cuba that is very important that is also
06:06continuing to grow.
06:08The United States has isolated itself from its own population and from the world population
06:13over the past year in unprecedented ways.
06:16Now the White House is synonymous with genocide.
06:20And the blockade, what's happening to the people of Cuba, is also a form of genocide,
06:25not through bombs, but through sanctions and through a blockade.
06:29The people of the United States are waking up to this reality,
06:32and the struggle in solidarity with Cuba will continue to grow.
06:36Thank you, Laian, for your time here and from the South.
06:41Thank you very much for having me.