US Says Cuba Is Not a Terrorist State

One of the most significant political injustices in the world ended yesterday: At about 1:43 p.m., we found out that Cuba was eliminated from a list that included countries that support terrorism.

The secretary of state, John Kerry, decided to remove Cuba from the blacklist after concluding that “Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism”* in the past six months. Also, it has “provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future,”* said Jeff Rathke, spokesman of the Department of State, in a communication.

In December 2014, the Democrat Obama requested that Kerry revise the designation of Cuba as a terrorist state. On April 8, 2015, Kerry recommended removing Cuba from the list to Obama. On April 14, three days after the first face-to-face meeting with Castro in Panama, Obama sent a report to Congress with the motives behind the decision.

To stop it, Congress would have had to adopt an alternative law. Despite the Republican majority in both houses, this route was improbable. Once the prescribed period of 45 days is over, the decision becomes effective.

The decision that was initiated last December by Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro was a transcendent step in the normalization of relations between both countries.

Cuba had been included on the list since 1982. During the height of the Cold War, the Reagan administration included Cuba on the list for alleged support to insurgent groups in Latin America. One of the arguments that the Department of State wielded in those years in order to keep Cuba listed was that the Socialist island sheltered members of the ETA [Basque National Liberation Movement], of the Colombian FARC, and fugitives of U.S. justice system.

Today, from distinct corners of the world, it is clear that the removal from the list is another step in a process full of understandings – certainly slow and ordered – that is being confirmed day to day.

The next step in the current stage of reconciliation and understanding will be the re-opening of the embassies of both countries in order to put to rest the break in diplomatic relations that occurred in 1961.

If the re-opening of the embassies is confirmed, analysts from both countries assure that it will initiate a stage of commercial understanding between the U.S. and Cuba.

It can be said that on revising its policy of aggression toward Cuba, the United States will give rise to the possibility of a new relationship between the peoples of the American continent.

* Editor’s note: These quotes were originally attributed to a letter Obama wrote to Congress.