"Cuba is not a terrorist country. There is no evidence whatsoever to support that label. It has been recognized by the vast majority of the international community and by many sectors, including the specialized agencies of the United States Government, which attach great value to its cooperation and its fight against this scourge."
So reads a fragment of a Letter to the President of the United States, signed by the Cuban Association of the United Nations - on behalf of 130 organizations, movements, networks, groups and actors of the Cuban civil society - requesting the exclusion of Cuba from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism, and which was recently quoted before Congress by Barbara Lee, representative of the Democratic Party for the state of California, according to sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The legislator interrupted her speech before the plenary of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress to introduce the letter and highlight several arguments that make the false accusation untenable, such as, for example, that there are many scientific discoveries on the island from which the Americans could benefit.
She emphasized the existence of Heberprot-P, a treatment that prevents amputation due to diabetes, which is used all over the world, and said she had seen it in clinics, as well as its effectiveness, which is between 80% and 90%.
She stressed that, despite the obstacles, Cuba has been able to overcome and has managed to get a U.S. company, Discovery Therapeutics Caribe, to develop the trials, which are in phase III.
"All we want is normal relations with Cuba," she stressed.
Congresswoman Lee asked the Chairman of the session to insert the quoted paragraph from the letter into the minutes, and stressed that she would be waiting for President Biden to remove Cuba from the list.
Other fragments of the letter denounce that it is the Cuban families "who suffer the consequences of this unjust designation, (...) those who have endured the wear and tear, the pain and the loss associated with the application of the coercive economic measures derived from it."
She reviews the serious consequences for the national economy of Cuba being considered a country sponsoring terrorism; an arbitrary designation recently revalidated by the U.S. Government that "is not only contrary to the truth," but also leads to the automatic application of other derived coercive economic measures, which are obstacles for Cuba to develop normally in the world market.
"Mr. President, we request that you do the right thing before the end of your mandate, that you make justice prevail and exclude Cuba from the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism," the letter concludes.
