By NOAM CHOMSKY & VIJAY PRASHAD*
Cuba is not a state sponsor of terrorism
Cuba, a country of eleven million inhabitants, has been subject to an illegal embargo by the US government for more than six decades.
Despite this embargo, the Cuban people were able to overcome the indignities of hunger, poor health and illiteracy, the three social plagues that continue to affect much of the world.
Thanks to its innovations in the provision of medical services, for example, Cuba has been able to send its health workers to other countries, even during the pandemic, to provide vital assistance. Cuba exports health workers, not terrorism.
In the final days of Donald Trump's administration, the US government once again included Cuba on its list of states sponsoring terrorism. This was an act of revenge. Donald Trump said this was done because Cuba hosted guerrilla groups from Colombia, which was actually part of Cuba's role as host to the peace talks.
Cuba played a key role in winning peace in Colombia, a country ravaged by a terrible civil war that, since 1948, has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. For two years, the Joe Biden administration has maintained Donald Trump's vindictive policy that punishes Cuba not for terrorism but for promoting peace.
Joe Biden can, in one stroke, eliminate Cuba from this list. It's that simple. When he was running for president, he said he would roll back Donald Trump's toughest sanctions.
But he didn't. It's time to do it.
*Noam Chomsky is a senior professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. Author, among other books, of Requiem for the American Dream (Bertrand Brazil).
*Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. Director General of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. Author, among other books, of Bullets from Washington: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations (Popular Expression).
Translation: Pedro Marin to Opera magazine.
Originally published on the portal Globetrotter.
The A Terra é Redonda website exists thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
Click here and find how