Opinion: Biden removes Cuba from terrorist list, but devastating economic blockade remains

While President Joe Biden did the right thing by removing Cuba from the list of countries that support terrorism, honesty compels me to say that Cuba should not have been on the list in the first place. In addition, Biden should have supported and called for Congress to end the devastating economic embargo (which serves as a blockade) that has caused severe

damages and hardship to the Cuban economy and its people. 

Having said that, I want to commend my colleagues in the 2023 New York City Council for passing my resolution calling for the removal of Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list and the ending of the decades-long economic blockade. Well over one hundred city councils have passed similar resolutions. Cuba’s removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list was a true victory for the people of Cuba and their supporters around the world. But the struggle continues! The cruel economic blockade and the United States’ hostile policies continue to bring devastation to the Cuban people and cause severe obstruction to the development of their economy. 

On March 14, 1958, the United States imposed an arms embargo against Cuba. On September 4, 1961, Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, a Cold War act, and authorized a complete trade embargo against Cuba. In February 1962, President John F. Kennedy imposed a total embargo against Cuba. In 1996, Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, which punishes foreign corporations that have interests in Cuba. The Biden administration continued to uphold the embargo. 

Cuba was first added to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. President Barack Obama removed Cuba from the list in 2015, but President Donald Trump put Cuba back on the list in 2021. Biden left Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list from 2021 to 2024 – only removing the country from the list a few days before leaving office! And on Monday, Trump once again named Cuba to the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

Since 1992, the United Nations General Assembly has passed non-binding resolutions every year (except 2020, due of COVID-19) condemning the ongoing impact of the embargo and declaring it a violation of United Nations and international law. In 2023, 187 countries voted for the resolution to end the embargo. The impact of the sixty-plus years embargo has caused the Cuban people to struggle to secure the necessities of life like medicine and food, which has caused serious health crises for the people of Cuba, particularly women and children. It has also cost the Cuban government over one trillion dollars.

Despite the sacrifices and difficulties the Cuban nation and its people face as a result of more than 60 years of an economic embargo and being placed on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, Cuba is lauded for its willingness to support other nations with their development goals and during national disasters. Cuba has deployed brigades of doctors, health personnel, engineers, technicians and workers to countries devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes. Cuba even offered to send doctors, health personnel, engineers, technicians and workers following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf region states in America, but the Bush administration rejected Cuba’s humanitarian gesture.

Internationally, Cuba is known for its incredibly highly developed health care system, which is one of the finest in the world. Thousands of doctors from around the world have graduated “tuition-free” from the famed Cuban Latin American School of Medicine, including over 250 United States doctors since 2001. My wife, Inez Barron, and I visited the Cuban School of Medicine and to our amazement, we met two students from our beloved East New York, Brooklyn community in attendance who received a six-year “tuition-free” medical education to become doctors and return to their community, debt-free, to provide much needed medical services.

During epidemics such as Ebola and COVID-19, Cuba developed its own vaccines, which were shared with many countries and saved countless lives – particularly in struggling, developing countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.

In the 1970s, Cuba stood up to the United States and the colonial apartheid government of South Africa by sending Cuban troops to the African country of Angola to assist them in defeating South African insurgents. In 1990, Cuba was instrumental in supporting the African country of Namibia in winning their independence from the colonial government of South Africa. In addition to Angola and Namibia, former Cuban president Fidel Castro and Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara sent troops and/or material aid to anti-colonial independent African movements in Algeria, the Congo, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, South Africa and more. Africa is eternally grateful to Cuba and its people.

In the Caribbean, Cuba supported the successful revolutionary movements in Grenada and Jamaica. Cuba also supported countries in Latin America, human rights movements and organizations around the world in their successful fights against colonialism and for independence and freedom.

Needless to say, the world is better off because of the sacrifices of the Cuban government and its people. We are determined to defeat, once and for all, the hateful, brutal and punishing economic and travel sanctions against Cuba and its people and establish the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.