Cuba condemns US state terrorist designation - Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba

The Ministry of Foreign Relations condemns, in the strongest and most absolute terms, the fraudulent qualification of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, announced by the United States government in a cynical and hypocritical act.

For months there has been speculation about the possibility of including Cuba in the State Department’s unilateral list that qualifies countries, without any mandate or legitimacy, lacking genuine motivation, referring to terrorism and its consequences, and as an instrument of defamation to apply coercive economic measures against nations that resist bowing to the whims of US imperialism.

The announcement made by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is an act by a government that is discredited, dishonest and morally bankrupt. It is known, without a doubt, that the true motivation for this action is to impose additional obstacles to any prospect of recovery in the bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States.

Cuba is not a state sponsor of terrorism, a truth recognised by all. The official and well-known policy, and the impeccable conduct of our country, is the rejection of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, in particular state terrorism, by whoever, against whoever and wherever it is committed.

Cuba is a state victim of terrorism and our population has suffered it first-hand, at the cost of 3,478 fatalities and 2,099 people with disabilities, due to acts committed by the United States government or perpetrated and sponsored from the territory of that country with the tolerance of the official authorities. We Cubans repudiate with contempt any manoeuvre aimed at manipulating such a sensitive issue, for gross purposes of political opportunism.