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Cuba News
FYI: An important message from CCS Executive Director Sandra Levinson
January 30, 2025
_________________________________________________________________________________
All of us expected Trump’s decision to reinstate Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism after Biden, in a cynical last minute move, removed Cuba from the list.
There is absolutely no factual basis for Cuba’s being on this State Dept. list in the first place. Senior government officials have known for years that there was no evidence to support such a designation applied to Cuba.
With no terrorist threat, this designation is meant only to ramp up the harm the US does to the Cuban people—and has been doing for more than 60 years with its unwarranted US blockade. The SSOT label imposes harsh economic sanctions, cuts off foreign aid and credit, and limits assistance of all kinds from even friendly governments.
Putting Cuba back on the SSOT list makes it tough for Cuba to conduct any kind of business internationally. First and foremost, it is devastating to Cuba’s tourist industry, which not only hurts Cuba, but hurts us in the US too—it scares off US businesses, it frightens those involved in cultural exchanges (not CCS!), it makes people think there’s something scary about visiting Cuba. If people do not travel to Cuba, all of the family-run BNBs suffer, artists cannot sell their works, musicians have limited audiences, both home-run and government restaurants are forced to close. Without money and with only limited credit, Cuba cannot buy the medicines it needs to distribute through its free health care system. Each of you can write your own example of economic harm done to this beautiful island by the blockade and one very nasty man.
What can we do? With Trump and his band of billionaires and right-wing thugs in power, it looks hopeless to many. But even Thomas Jefferson got it right, “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” And for those of us whose work involves educating as many as possible, we can look to George Orwell, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
So let us all be truth-tellers, let us all fight against this monstrous injustice. Trump is ignorant, with no understanding of the world, without love for humankind and who does not know the meaning of justice. This makes our protests more difficult, but also more necessary. As the Cubans might say, we’re in for a difficult few years but “la lucha constante” continues.
