For representative Jim McGovern and former senator Patrick Leahy, both Democrats, the president of the United States should remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, according to a article that they published in the newspaper The Boston Globe.
“Almost all intelligence officials and diplomats in the Democratic and Republican administrations agree with this: the appointment was without merit,” they write about the decision made during the final days of the Trump administration.
“In Washington it is an open secret that Cuba does not belong to the list and that the previous false justification of the Trump administration was politically motivated,” they underline.
However, more than half of President Biden’s term has already elapsed, and Cuba continues to be included on that list. Private industry, religious groups, NGOs, universities and even foreign governments, they say, risk persecution for almost any type of humanitarian aid, business, investment or trade with Cuban citizens.
Both agree that US policies have helped create a humanitarian crisis on the island, combined with government mismanagement and supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19.
“And now, as a result of severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and other necessities, unprecedented numbers of Cubans are fleeing the island. In 2022, more than 313,000 undocumented Cubans applied for admission to the United States, more than double the number in the 1980 Mariel flotilla and the 1994 rafter crisis combined.
The solution, they emphasize, is the United States’ commitment to Cuba, which “allows us to better defend the rights and alleviate the suffering of the Cuban people.”
They argue, Biden should renounce Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, a misguided attempt to intimidate other countries into inadvertently joining efforts to punish the Cuban people and businessmen, “even when they have nothing to do with the Government”.
Both politicians call for expanding diplomatic dialogue with Havana on issues such as migration, maritime security and environmental protection, and facilitating the export of US agricultural products.
Lastly, they advocate for more Americans to travel to Cuba to support the private sector, which would necessitate the reinstatement of the general license for individual person-to-person educational travel. It would be “a great boost to private companies,” they conclude.
