ABOUT 600 parliamentarians from 73 countries across the globe today joined the condemnation of Cuba’s designation by the United States as a “state sponsor of terrorism” (SSOT).

In a joint letter co-ordinated by the Progressive International Organisation, the lawmakers describe the inclusion of Cuba on the arbitrary US State Department list as “cynical, cruel and a clear violation of international law.” 

The letter calls on their respective governments to “take immediate action to advocate” the removal of the designation.

The US state sponsor of terrorism designation, removed in 2015 by the Obama administration, was reapplied to Cuba on the very last days of  the Trump presidency in 2021. 

Countries on the US list face extreme sanctions which hinder access to medicines and foods. The three other countries with the designation by the US government are Syria, since 1979, Iran, since 1984 and North Korea, since 2017. 

President Joe Biden has not removed the designation, despite promising a return to the Obama-era policy.

The signatories say that Cuba should be removed from the SSOT “in the name of dignity, decency, and the integrity of the UN Charter.” 

They point out that a range of UN experts have also made it clear that the designation has undermined “fundamental human rights, including the right to food, right to health, right to education, economic and social rights, right to life and right to development.”

Among the signatories to the letter are former president of the Belgian Workers Party Peter Mertens, Brazilian Deputy Celia Xakriaba, French Deputy Arnaud Le Gall, Die Linke leader Martin Schirdewan, Ghanaian MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Jamaica’s People’s National Party leader Mark Golding, Podemos leader Ione Belarra and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn.

The signatories argue that the designation “is cruel because it is designed to maximise the suffering of the people of Cuba, strangling its economy, displacing its families and even restricting the flow of humanitarian aid.”

In May 2024, the US State Department finally removed Cuba from the list of states “not fully co-operating” with the United States on counterterrorism efforts. But, the letter argues, “this is not enough” as “Cuba continues to suffer as a result of its cynical, cruel and illegal exclusion from the international economy.”