ON HIS first day in office, US President Donald Trump reinstated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.”

Outgoing president Joe Biden had removed Cuba from the US State Department’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism” less than a week prior, a long-awaited move that he committed to in his final days in office. Prior to this, Cuba had been on the list since 2021, as Trump had added Cuba in the final days of his first administration. 

This designation has piled on unilateral sanctions to the already blockaded island and led to multiple humanitarian crises, as it has the unofficial effects of ostracising Cuba from global trade —resulting in shortages of key goods such as fuel. 

Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel called Trump’s reinstatement of Cuba to the list an “act of arrogance and disregard for the truth.” 

“His goal is to continue strengthening the cruel economic war against Cuba for the purpose of domination,” the Cuban president stated. 

Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez accused Trump of being “drunk with arrogance.” 

“His determination is to increase the punishment and the economic war against Cuban families,” Rodriguez stated. “It will cause harm, but it will not break the firm determination of our people. We will win.”

Alba Movimientos, a platform of social and political organisations from across Latin America and the Caribbean, lambasted both Trump’s decision to re-add Cuba to the list and the last-minute nature of Biden’s action to remove Cuba.

“After buying his way to the White House for a second term, technofascist tycoon Donald Trump could not even wait 24 hours to re-include Cuba in the spurious list of state sponsors of terrorism,” the platform stated. “His predecessor Joe Biden’s last-minute cowardly act is followed by this latest crime of the US ruling class, who yesterday inaugurated a new period of terror from Washington.”

The platform stated: “There is no room for half measures: the act of Trump and his lot are measures of unconventional warfare and part of a policy of genocide — by action, omission, and intention. Those who minimise or justify it are collaborators, and the full weight of history will fall on them.”

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Agreement (Alba-TCP) has rejected Trump’s decision to re-add Cuba to the list.

“Former president Joe Biden publicly acknowledged what the international community has always noted: that Cuba does not sponsor terrorism and has always fought against this scourge in any form,” Alba-TCP stated. 

“The world, today, is facing the imposition of erratic, abusive, criminal and illegal measures in a totally shameless and unpunished manner by an administration that promotes hatred and provokes profound deprivation for the purpose of domination,” said the alliance, adding that the grouping “strongly rejects this act of arrogance that intends to cause serious damage to the noble Cuban people, demands the withdrawal of Cuba from this list made to the ideological measure of imperialism and expresses its absolute solidarity with the firm determination of sovereignty and dignity of this sister nation.”

US-based organisations within the Cuba solidarity movement have also responded to Trump’s move. The International Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America denounced Trump’s “cruel and cynical act,” writing that the organisation condemns “this injustice” and remains “committed to fighting until these harmful policies are ended once and for all.”

The National Network on Cuba also responded, questioning Trump’s commitment to so-called “America first” principles, claiming that Trump is not “listening to the 60 million represented by the elected government and union bodies calling for the blockade to end.”

The People’s Forum asserted that “there are no credible facts to justify placing Cuba on this arbitrary list. Alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump is clearly establishing a relationship with Latin America that prioritises US billionaire interests over the self-determination and independence of its peoples, enforcing sanctions and blockades as punishment.

“We will continue in solidarity with Cuba and resist Trump’s billionaire agenda!” the New York City-based organisation declared.

This article appeared at peoplesdispatch.org.