00:00And as we informed, the Biden administration announced Tuesday that it has removed Cuba
00:05from the list of countries that allegedly sponsored terrorism.
00:08And to go deep into the relevance of this announcement, we contact analyst
00:12Layane Fuleihan from the People's Forum.
00:14Hi, Layane, and thank you for your time here from the South.
00:18Thank you so much for having me.
00:20For four years, the island has been included on this list,
00:24despite there being no evidence that would justify its inclusion.
00:28But what does this list mean?
00:32This list has no meaning at this point.
00:34I mean, the fact that Cuba is on this list means the list has no meaning.
00:38The greatest terrorist sponsors of terrorism in the world right now,
00:41we can see them with our own eyes.
00:43It is the United States and Israel who have been massacring
00:46the people of Gaza, the children of Gaza for over 15 months.
00:51The fact that Cuba is included on this list just goes to show that the list
00:55is a political tool used by the United States to try to isolate the countries
01:00that it is waging hybrid war against.
01:03So the fact that Biden took so long to take Cuba off the list,
01:07it's a great thing that Cuba is off the list,
01:09but Biden should have done it the first day that he came into office.
01:14So President Miguel Diaz-Canel assured today that this measure has had
01:18a high cost for the country.
01:20How does that translate into the real impacts of this list
01:24on the lives of Cuban ordinary people?
01:28Well, this list adds another layer to the very intense blockade
01:35that has been imposed on the people of Cuba for over 60 years.
01:40This list makes it an extra level of difficulty for Cuba to be able to
01:45make any financial transactions in the international sphere
01:49and to work with any other entities in any kind of exchange
01:54in purchasing necessary items like food and medicine.
01:58And it creates a level of intimidation because the United States is indicating with this list
02:04that they also will take action against those who do work with Cuba.
02:09And it's, of course, very complex and very varied in the economic and legal spheres,
02:14but it creates an environment in which other parties and other countries
02:19think twice about making exchanges with Cuba because they do not want to incur
02:24the consequences that the United States would impose on them.
02:27This is a criminal level of blockade.
02:31It is designed to cut off the Cuban economy from the global economy.
02:38And it has already been said very clearly since the beginning
02:43that this is a tool used by the United States to try to starve the Cuban people into submission.
02:49It has not worked for decades.
02:52Precisely.
02:52And also the removal of Cuba from the U.S. unilateral list of countries
02:56responsible for terrorism allegedly is a victory, of course, for the Cuban people.
03:01But the struggle continues.
03:03What does this decision mean just a few days before the integration of President Donald Trump,
03:08who actually re-included Cuba on this list in his previous administration?
03:13And also let's recall that the blockade is yet very much in force.
03:17So what does that mean?
03:21Well, we can take this as a victory for the Cuban people and also a sign that the sustained
03:29grassroots pressure in the campaign to remove Cuba from the list from the peoples of the world
03:35inside the United States, all who stand in solidarity with the Cuban people and across
03:40the Americas and across the world, there has been a sustained campaign
03:43to remove Cuba from the list and lift the blockade.
03:47This is one victory on that path.
03:49But we know that the struggle does not end here.
03:52We have to continue advocating for the lifting of the entire blockade.
03:58It is in no one's interest to have this blockade.
04:00It is not in the interest of the United States people for there to be a blockade.
04:04Cuba is a neighboring country with much to share with us and much to exchange.
04:08And it is the right of neighborly people to be able to
04:12have international solidarity and to exchange.
04:15So the struggle will continue.
04:18Biden, in a very cowardly move, waited to the last week of his administration
04:23to do what he could have done the first day that he came into office.
04:26In fact, he could have done it with no real opposition because it was a policy of the
04:32Obama administration.
04:33The Obama administration was moving insufficiently, but moving towards
04:38more openings with Cuba.
04:40Biden could have said, we will undo what the Trump administration did.
04:44But he did not.
04:45He kept all of the Trump additional coercive sanctions.
04:49He kept Cuba on the list, which Trump was the one to first bring Cuba on.
04:58And he waited until this moment.
04:59Trump is coming back into office and we will continue advocating that Cuba remain off the
05:05list and that we go forward with the lifting of the blockade.
05:09But of course, Biden has basically left it open for Trump to make a decision
05:13before Cuba can really recover economically from this brief moment of being off of the list.
05:20So we hope that Trump does not return Cuba to the list.
05:24But we have to notice that Biden should have done this four years ago.
05:30What's the role that the activism from the U.S. is going to play in this moment of uncertainty
05:37ahead of the upcoming new government in the U.S. for Cuba?
05:44Well, the people of the United States are going to continue calling for friendship and
05:53cooperation with the people of Cuba, with Cuba, with the country of Cuba, our neighboring country.
06:02There is a level of consciousness around Cuba that is very important that is also
06:06continuing to grow.
06:08The United States has isolated itself from its own population and from the world population
06:13over the past year in unprecedented ways.
06:16Now the White House is synonymous with genocide.
06:20And the blockade, what's happening to the people of Cuba, is also a form of genocide,
06:25not through bombs, but through sanctions and through a blockade.
06:29The people of the United States are waking up to this reality,
06:32and the struggle in solidarity with Cuba will continue to grow.
06:36Thank you, Laian, for your time here and from the South.
06:41Thank you very much for having me.
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