By Atilio A. Boron on October 7, 2023
photo: Jacob Kupferman
A few days before the end of its term in office, the Trump Administration once again included Cuba in the list of countries sponsoring international terrorism together with Iran, North Korea and Syria. The decision was communicated by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on December 12, 2021 on the lying grounds that “Cuba repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism” by offering shelter and protection to U.S. fugitives and Colombian rebel leaders.” Notwithstanding the gravity of this accusation Pompeo did not list a single act that international law would qualify as terrorist.
The reason for such slander is obvious just by recalling the response offered by George W. Bush’s (Jr.) top advisor, Karl Rove, to journalists who questioned the White House’s misleading statements, “we are an empire and when we act we create reality and you (referring to journalists) can write or say whatever you want, but we are the ones who make history and we make it as we please”. In other words, the empire “creates” a reality: Cuba as a sanctuary for terrorism, knowingly lying and defaming, in order to justify its foreign policy and shore up its interests in a world as convulsed as the present one. In this case, by the infamous accusation of describing as a protector of terrorism a country whose government, with the support of its Norwegian counterpart, has been a host and decisive protagonist in the construction of the peace process in Colombia and is currently engaged in that noble purpose to put an end to the ongoing confrontation between the ELN and the Colombian armed forces. Contrary to what the U.S. right wing and especially the banditry that has its lair in Miami says, Cuba never provided arms or offered military training to the Colombian guerrilla movements summoned to the negotiating table. Its mission was to sponsor a dialogue and, in some cases, to offer medical attention to the parties involved in those talks.
It was because of the above that recently, more precisely on September 19 and within the framework of the UN General Assembly, President Gustavo Petro requested the White House to “remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.” Not more than a few hours had passed since that sensible request when the State Department spokeswoman, Kristina Rosales, jumped into the journalistic arena to declare that the United States “is not going to remove Cuba from that list, and if there is a change it will be the United States who will make the announcement.” The arrogant upon arrogant attitude of this official is typical of an empire that dreams of continuing to be the sheriff of the planet and the very personification of all that is just and good in this world. Old pretensions, absurd and unfounded, anchored in the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny” that strive to cover with a cloak of oblivion that this so-called prosecutor of the fight against terrorism is the greatest terrorist that has ever existed in world history.
Let us remember: the United States is the only country that dropped atomic bombs on two defenseless cities in Japan in August 1945, annihilating hundreds of thousands of people in a few hours. The country that, as Jeffrey Sachs recently reminded us, with its “aid” policy destroyed Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and tore apart the former Yugoslavia; the country that ordered the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and Ernesto “Che” Guevara and dozens of popular leaders; the one who organized the lynching of Gaddafi, the judicial farce that concluded with the execution of Saddam Hussein and the one who designed the sinister Condor Plan through which thousands of Latin Americans were executed and disappeared. Despite this horror, its ruling class feels it has the authority to determine who is and who is not a terrorist, according to its own peculiar interpretation of that term.
And with that self anointed authority the U.S. government redoubles its aggression against the heroic island of Cuba and maintains the infamy of Trump and Pompeo. If there were an ounce of political honesty and decency left in Washington, President Joe Biden should remove Cuba from that list today and put an end to the criminal blockade to which it has subjected it for more than sixty years, which is nothing other than one of the most brutal terrorist acts of our time.
Source: Cuba en Resumen