SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
The U.S. has officially removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. (Photo: Cubahora/flickr/cc)
'A Step in the Right Direction': US Removes Cuba from Terror List
Move signals continued restoration of diplomatic ties, but economic sanctions will remain in place
May 29, 2015
The U.S. has formally removed Cuba from its list of "state sponsors of terror," the State Department announced on Friday, signaling one more step forward in a renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries after more than 50 years.
Some economic sanctions against the Caribbean nation will remain in place.
President Barack Obama announced his intention to remove Cuba from the list in April, giving Congress 45 days to consider the new policy.
Cuba's placement on the list, which began in 1982 over its support of leftist movements in South and Central America, has complicated the country's access to financial markets for decades and been a roadblock in the building of foreign embassies there.
Keith Bolender, freelance journalist and author of Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba, noted in April that Cuba's inclusion on the list "has long been opposed by the Castro government for its hypocrisy based on the long history of terrorism the United States has supported against Cuba."
"Cuba's removal from the list will hopefully warm efforts to normalize relations between the two nations," CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin told Common Dreams on Friday. However, while the decision is "a step in the right direction... we still have a long road ahead," she added.
"As Cuba's removal from the list opens the pathway to opening embassies, we must now turn to Congress and demand that they further the president's actions by ending the American travel ban to Cuba and the entire economic embargo," Benjamin said.
The only countries which remain on the list now are Iran, Sudan, and Syria.
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The U.S. has formally removed Cuba from its list of "state sponsors of terror," the State Department announced on Friday, signaling one more step forward in a renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries after more than 50 years.
Some economic sanctions against the Caribbean nation will remain in place.
President Barack Obama announced his intention to remove Cuba from the list in April, giving Congress 45 days to consider the new policy.
Cuba's placement on the list, which began in 1982 over its support of leftist movements in South and Central America, has complicated the country's access to financial markets for decades and been a roadblock in the building of foreign embassies there.
Keith Bolender, freelance journalist and author of Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba, noted in April that Cuba's inclusion on the list "has long been opposed by the Castro government for its hypocrisy based on the long history of terrorism the United States has supported against Cuba."
"Cuba's removal from the list will hopefully warm efforts to normalize relations between the two nations," CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin told Common Dreams on Friday. However, while the decision is "a step in the right direction... we still have a long road ahead," she added.
"As Cuba's removal from the list opens the pathway to opening embassies, we must now turn to Congress and demand that they further the president's actions by ending the American travel ban to Cuba and the entire economic embargo," Benjamin said.
The only countries which remain on the list now are Iran, Sudan, and Syria.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The U.S. has formally removed Cuba from its list of "state sponsors of terror," the State Department announced on Friday, signaling one more step forward in a renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries after more than 50 years.
Some economic sanctions against the Caribbean nation will remain in place.
President Barack Obama announced his intention to remove Cuba from the list in April, giving Congress 45 days to consider the new policy.
Cuba's placement on the list, which began in 1982 over its support of leftist movements in South and Central America, has complicated the country's access to financial markets for decades and been a roadblock in the building of foreign embassies there.
Keith Bolender, freelance journalist and author of Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba, noted in April that Cuba's inclusion on the list "has long been opposed by the Castro government for its hypocrisy based on the long history of terrorism the United States has supported against Cuba."
"Cuba's removal from the list will hopefully warm efforts to normalize relations between the two nations," CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin told Common Dreams on Friday. However, while the decision is "a step in the right direction... we still have a long road ahead," she added.
"As Cuba's removal from the list opens the pathway to opening embassies, we must now turn to Congress and demand that they further the president's actions by ending the American travel ban to Cuba and the entire economic embargo," Benjamin said.
The only countries which remain on the list now are Iran, Sudan, and Syria.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.