The United States adopts measures in the right direction

Photo: Juvenal Balán

On January 14, 2025, the U.S. Government announced the decision to: 1) exclude Cuba from the State Department’s list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism; 2) make use of the presidential prerogative to prevent action in U.S. courts against lawsuits filed under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act; and 3) eliminate the list of restricted Cuban entities that designates a group of institutions with which U.S. citizens and institutions are prohibited from engaging in financial transactions, which has had an effect on third countries.

Despite its limited nature, this is a decision in the right direction and in line with the sustained and firm demand of the Government and the people of Cuba, and with the broad, emphatic and reiterated call of numerous governments, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, of Cubans living abroad, of political, religious and social organizations, and of numerous political figures in the United States and other countries. The Government of Cuba thanks everyone for their contribution and sensitivity.

This decision puts an end to specific coercive measures that, together with many others, cause serious damage to the Cuban economy, with a severe effect on the population. This is and has been an issue in Cuba’s official exchanges with the U.S. Government.

It is important to point out that the economic blockade and a good part of the dozens of coercive measures that were put into effect since 2017 to reinforce it remain in force, with full extraterritorial effect and in violation of International Law and the human rights of all Cubans.

To cite just a few examples, the illegal and aggressive persecution continues against fuel supplies that Cuba has a legitimate right to import. The cruel and absurd persecution of Cuba’s legitimate international medical cooperation agreements with other countries continues, threatening to deprive millions of people of health services and limiting the potential of Cuba’s public health system. Cuba’s international financial transactions or those of any nationals that are related to Cuba remain under prohibition and retaliation. Merchant ships docking in Cuba also remain under threat.

On the other hand, every U.S. citizen, company and subsidiary entity of a U.S. corporation is prohibited from trading with Cuba or Cuban entities, except for very restricted and regulated exceptions. Harassment, intimidation and threats against the national of any country that intends to trade with or invest in Cuba continue to be official U.S. policy. Cuba continues to be a destination that the U.S. Government prohibits its citizens from visiting.

The economic war remains and persists in posing the fundamental obstacle to the development and recovery of the Cuban economy at a high human cost to the population, and continues to be a stimulus to emigration.

The decision announced today by the United States corrects, in a very restricted way, aspects of a cruel and unjust policy. It is a correction that occurs now, on the verge of a change of government, when it should have been made years ago, as an elementary act of justice, without demanding anything in return and without fabricating pretexts to justify inaction, if it was desired to act correctly. In order to exclude Cuba from the arbitrary list of State sponsors of terrorism, it should have been enough to acknowledge the truth, the total absence of reasons for such designation and the exemplary performance of our country in the fight against terrorism, which even U.S. government agencies have admitted.
It is known that the U.S. government could reverse the measures adopted today in the future, as has happened on other occasions and as a sign of the lack of legitimacy, ethics, consistency and reason in its conduct against Cuba.

To do so, U.S. politicians do not usually stop to find honest justification, as long as the vision described in 1960 by the then Assistant Secretary of State Lester Mallory, and the goal described by him of subduing the Cubans by means of economic siege, misery, hunger and desperation, remains in force. They would not stop at justifications as long as that government continues to be incapable of recognizing and accepting Cuba’s right to self-determination, and as long as it continues to be willing to assume the political cost of international isolation caused by its genocidal and illegal policy of economic asphyxiation against Cuba.

Cuba will continue to confront and denounce this policy of economic warfare, the interference programs and the disinformation and discrediting operations financed every year with tens of millions of dollars from the U.S. federal budget. It will also remain willing to develop a relationship of respect with that country, based on dialogue and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, despite differences.

Havana, January 14, 2025

Díaz-Canel in Caracas for the Inauguration of Nicolás Maduro

Photo: Cuban Presidency X Account 

CARACAS – The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, arrived this Friday in Caracas, after 8:00 a.m. (local time), to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of Nicolás Maduro Moros, this January 10, as re-elected President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, for the 2025-2031 cycle.
The Head of State -who touched Venezuelan soil at the Simón Bolívar International Airport- was received by Gabriela Jiménez, sectoral vice-president for Science, Technology, Education and Health, as well as by Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera, ambassador of the largest of the Antilles in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Recently, in mid-December 2024, Díaz-Canel had visited the Caribbean country to take part in the 24th Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP).
At that important meeting, the Cuban dignitary had declared that “Cuba will not bend, just as ALBA-TCP will not”; and had called for that integrating organization to “continue moving forward, in constant search and realization of projects for the economic development and dignity of Our America”.
This will be the third time that Nicolás Maduro Moros – born in Caracas on November 23, 1962 – is sworn in as President of his country. He has been carrying on his shoulders for more than ten years the task of leading a great nation of Our America, as the protagonist of a performance whose essence is to preserve the legacy of Commander Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías.
The Cuban delegation that has arrived to the South American country and headed by the President of the Island, is also integrated by the member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; the head of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Emilio Lozada García; as well as the General Director of Latin America and the Caribbean of the Foreign Ministry, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez; and the Cuban Ambassador to this sister nation, Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera.

A CALL TO ENDORSE AND PARTICIPATE IN AN INTERNATIONAL US-CUBA NORMALIZATION CONFERENCE

The organizations below — all leaders in the US, Canadian, hemispheric, and international movements fighting bipartisan Washington’s economic and political war against the sovereign nation-state of Cuba — appeal to your organization, trade union, church, mosque, synagogue, temple, political party, peace and/or solidarity coalition, to sponsor and participate directly in an historic International US-Cuba Normalization Conference (IUSCNC).

On March 15-16, 2025, in New York City, the International U.S-Cuba Normalization Conference will take place in-person and live-streamed across the globe.

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Díaz-Canel: “Thank you for your heroism in the face of the barbarity of the economic war against us”

Photo: ACN

Cuba’s top authorities sent a message to the people just hours before celebrating the 66th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, this January 1st.
“Dear compatriots: Infinite thanks for your heroism in the face of the barbarity of the economic war that is being waged against us,” declared Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic.
With his message, in X, the president encouraged to remember the year that is ending, not for the obstacles and shortages but for the victories achieved.
“It is a great honor and thrill to know that we are part of this people who were not born destined for greatness. It has earned it through heroism and creativity in resistance. Long live Cuba forever free and sovereign by the will of its people,” added the head of state.
His message was accompanied by a video, in which the daily life of Cubans is accompanied by his words at the closing of the 4th Ordinary Period of Sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power in its 10th Legislature, at the Convention Palace, on December 20, 2024:
In today’s Cuba, no one needs to walk very far if they want to find our heroines and heroes: They are millions! They make up the body and soul of a Revolution that resists and incessantly remakes itself. They are of all colors and of all ages. They do not think of medals or tributes, because they are determined to make a living day by day.
They do not think about losing but about winning; and if someone asks them what they are up to, they will say that they are “in the fight”, “in the struggle”, “in the fight”, “on their knees”, without crying, because the most powerful empire in history has been denying their beloved country, for more than 60 years, in cold blood and with total perversity, their right to welfare.
There are our heroes and martyrs, those who, as José Martí said, are sacred because they served their homeland. And there are also those of today, those who are not yet in any book: all those who put their hands and intelligence to work for Cuba; those who know that work is the source of all benefits; those who do not complain bitterly because something has been done wrong or has not been done, because they get involved in the solutions; those who put chest and hands to life and go tearing off bits and pieces of the problems, just as weeds are pulled out of the way.
These heroic protagonists have names and surnames: they are our children, always cheerful; they are their teachers, with humility as a sign, and full of lights, many of them doing wonders in amazing corners of the geography. They are our workers full of grease, smut or mud, but full of courage as they clean a well, or compose a thermoelectric boiler, or raise a high tension tower or a pole that has been knocked to the ground by a hurricane.
They are our doctors, nurses, scientists, artists and creators; they are all the entrepreneurs who dream of order, cleanliness and making things work well. It is the family ironing the school shirt at any cost, and at all hours standing in front of the pots and pans in the house (Applause). It is our young people -that sacred force of the country- wanting to do something useful. They are our indefatigable cadres, those who in the field must make bold decisions and unite wills. Heroes are all of them, absolutely all those who do not believe in defeat! They are invincible heroes!