A SCOTTISH Labour MP has put his name to a letter calling for Cuba’s designation as a “state-sponsor of terrorism” by the United States to be removed.
The US previously placed Cuba on a list of state sponsors of terrorism towards the end of Donald Trump’s time as president, citing the country’s backing of Venezuela.
Prior to this, the country had been removed from the list by Barack Obama in 2015, and Joe Biden has said he wanted to improve US-Cuban relations.
The State Sponsor of Terrorism List (SSOT) is a mechanism which sanctions countries deemed by the US secretary of state to have provided support for acts of international terrorism.
As well as Cuba, it currently includes North Korea, Iran, and Syria, who are all designated as having “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism”.
When explaining Cuba’s inclusion in 2021, then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said it was due to Cuba’s support of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who the US refuses to recognise.
“With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message – the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of US justice," Pompeo said.
Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned the “cynical and hypocritical” qualification of placing Cuba on the list.
Scots Labour MSP joins calls to remove Cuba
Scottish Labour MSP Richard Leonard is among nearly 600 parliamentarians from 73 countries across the world to put his name to a joint letter from Progressive International (PI) calling for Cuba to removed from the list.
The parliamentarians are calling legislators from their respective governments to “take immediate action to advocate for [the designation’s] removal”.
Former Labour leader and now independent MP Jeremy Corbyn is also among those to put his name to the letter.
The letter states 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”.
One issue for example is that the tightening of US sanctions during the Trump administration make it harder to deliver humanitarian aid at a time when the country is struggling with shortages of basic goods and medical supplies.
The signatories of the letter argue that having Cuba on the list 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 did remove Cuba from the list of states “not fully co-operating" with the US on counterterrorism efforts, although the letter argues this is “not enough” as the country continues to “suffer as a result of its cynical, cruel and illegal exclusion from the international economy”.
The letter follows 35 former heads of state writing to Biden asking him to remove Cuba from the SSOT list as he enters his final months in office.
The National has approached the US Department of State for comment.
Read the Progressive International letter in full
We, the undersigned parliamentarians from across the globe, condemn the designation of Cuba as a “state-sponsor of terrorism” and call on our respective governments to take immediate action to advocate for its removal.
The United States' designation of Cuba as a “state-sponsor of terrorism” is cynical, cruel, and a clear violation of international law.
The designation, removed in 2015 following a thorough evaluation by the Obama administration, was reapplied to Cuba on the very last days of the Trump presidency as a final act in his campaign of economic warfare against the island.
As a candidate, Joe Biden pledged to restore the diplomatic relationship fostered by his Democratic predecessor. But as president, Biden reneged — even after the Colombian government dropped the extradition charges against members of its National Liberation Army (ELN): the original justification for Trump to reapply the “state sponsor” designation.
The designation is therefore cynical because Cuba — far from sponsoring terrorism — has served as a key broker for peace talks between the Colombian government, the ELN, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The present talks mark one decade since Cuba convened the member-states of CELAC to declare the region a Zone of Peace, “based on respect for the principles and rules of International Law.”
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. According to United Nations experts, the designation has undermined “[f]undamental human rights, including the right to food, right to health, right to education, economic and social rights, right to life and right to development”.
Finally, the designation is illegal because it undermines “the principle of sovereign equality of States, the prohibition to intervene into domestic affairs of states and the principle of peaceful settlement of international disputes,” according to UN legal experts. The extreme, extraterritorial sanctions triggered by the designation thus mark a clear violation of international law.
In May 2024, the US State Department finally removed Cuba from the list of states that are “not fully cooperating” with the United States on counterterrorism efforts. But this is not enough. Cuba continues to suffer as a result of its cynical, cruel, and illegal exclusion from the international economy.
With this letter, we underline the urgency of removing Cuba from the list of “state-sponsors of terrorism” in the name of dignity, decency, and the integrity of the UN Charter — and call on our governments to use all diplomatic means to redress this grave ongoing injustice.
