Thursday, January 23, 2025
Cuba Affirms Steadfast Defence of Its
Human-Centred
Nation-Building Project
Donald Trump Revokes Removal of Cuba from List of State Sponsors of Terrorism

March of more than
500,000 people in Havana, December 20, 2024, demands end of criminal
U.S. blockade
• Donald Trump Revokes Removal of Cuba
from List of
State
Sponsors of Terrorism
• Cuba Will Overcome the Imperialist Offensive
• Cuba Conducts Bastion 2024 Strategic Military Exercise
Cuba Affirms Steadfast Defence of Its Human-Centred Nation-Building Project
Donald Trump Revokes Removal of Cuba from
List of
State Sponsors of
Terrorism
"President Trump, in an act of arrogance and contempt for the truth, has just reinstated the fraudulent designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism," Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba stated on social network X on January 20.
"It
is not surprising. Its objective is to continue strengthening the cruel
economic war against Cuba for the purpose of domination," he added.
Díaz-Canel was referring to the decision taken by the incoming President of the United States Donald Trump on his first day in office when he revoked 78 actions, executive orders, and presidential memoranda approved by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
"The result of the extreme economic siege measures imposed by Trump has been to provoke shortages among our people and a significant increase in the migratory flow from Cuba to the United States. This insulting and abusive action confirms the lack of legitimacy of the listings and unilateral coercive mechanisms of the U.S. government. The legitimate and noble cause of our people will prevail and once again carry the day," the Cuban Head of State declared.
Trump rescinded the Presidential Memorandum of January 14 issued by then President Biden, which stated that the Government of Cuba had not provided any support to international terrorism during the previous six-month period and offered assurances that it would not support acts of international terrorism in the future.
The list of "restricted entities" (NSPM-5), created during Trump's first term, signed in June 2017, was also reinstated.[1]
In the communiqué published on January 14 on Presided Biden's gesture, the Cuban Foreign Ministry (MINREX) raised the possibility that the U.S. government could in the future reverse the measures adopted by Biden that day, as has happened on other occasions, and as a sign of the lack of legitimacy, ethics, consistency and reason in its conduct against Cuba.
Note
1. On January 14, 2025, President Biden rescinded Cuba's designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism ("SST") and removed restrictions on financial transactions with certain Cuban parties by issuing to Congress a Certification of Rescission of Cuba's Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism ("Certification") and National Security Memorandum 29 ("NSM-29") revoking a past National Security Presidential Memorandum related to Cuba that had been issued by then-President Trump in June 2017.
Biden's executive order of January 14 rescinding Trump's Presidential Memorandum of January 12, 2021 stated that the Government of Cuba had not provided any support to international terrorism during the previous six-month period and offered assurances that it would not support acts of international terrorism in the future.
The list of "restricted entities" (NSPM-5), created during Trump's first term as President, also signed in June 2017, was also reinstated.
President Biden also sent a Letter to the Chairmen and Chair of Certain Congressional Committees on the Suspension of the Right to Bring an Action Under Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (also known as the Helms-Burton Act) ("Title III Letter") suspending for six months beyond January 29, 2025 the right to bring an action under Title III of the Act for "trafficking" in confiscated property claimed by U.S. nationals.
Trump rescinded both the Certification and NSM-29, effectively reinstating the status quo. He does not appear to have rescinded the Title III Letter yet but no one would be surprised if he did not extend the six-month suspension of the right to bring an action under Title III as he was the first president to not continue suspension of the provision since its enactment in 1996, having allowed it to proceed for the first time in April 2019.
Cuba was originally designated as an SST in 1982, but President Barack Obama rescinded that in May 2015. Then, on January 11, 2021, in the final days of the first Trump administration, the U.S. State Department announced Cuba's redesignation as an SST for allegedly supporting acts of international terrorism and granting safe harbor to terrorists.
Cuba is already subject to comprehensive sanctions and strict export controls. For example, the Biden administration never reversed the first Trump administration's imposition of a 10 per cent de minimis threshold on Cuba in October 2019.
Sanctions and Export Controls Implications of the Redesignation
The sanctions and restrictions triggered by Cuba's SST status, in U.S. parlance, include:
1. A licensing requirement for exports or reexports of goods or technology that could significantly enhance Cuba's military capability or ability to support terrorism;
2. A prohibition on exports and reexports to Cuba of defense articles and defense services and related technology under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations;
3. A requirement for the U.S. to oppose loans to Cuba by the World Bank and other international financial institutions;
4. A prohibition on any assistance to Cuba under the Food for Peace, Peace Corps, and Export-Import Bank programs;
5. A prohibition on U.S. Persons (i.e., entities organized under U.S. laws and their non-U.S. branches; individuals and entities physically located in the United States; and U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens, wherever located or employed) from engaging in financial transactions with the Cuban government without a license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, under the Terrorism List Governments Sanctions Regulations; and
6. An exception to sovereign immunity that allows individual U.S. Persons to bring claims against the Cuban government in U.S. courts for personal injury and death resulting from terrorism or material support for terrorism.
The "Cuba Restricted List"
The "Cuba Restricted List" was developed pursuant to NSPM-5 and comprises entities determined to be under the control of, or who act for or on behalf of, the Cuban military, intelligence, or security services or personnel and with which direct financial transactions would disproportionately benefit the Cuban military, intelligence, or security services or personnel at the expense of the Cuban people or private enterprise in Cuba. On January 16, 2025, the U.S. Secretary of State issued a notice announcing that the rescission had occurred. This rescission has now been withdrawn.
Persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are generally prohibited from engaging in certain direct financial dealings with entities and subentities identified by the State Department on the Cuba Restricted List.
(Granma International, January 20, 2025; sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com)
Cuba Will Overcome the Imperialist Offensive
U.S. President Donald Trump lashes out against Cuba from day one and without pretext. The decision to reinstate the tough economic warfare measures against Cuba, which his predecessor removed just days before, proves the aggressiveness of U.S. imperialism against the sovereignty, peace and welfare of the Cuban people. These measures comprise the inclusion of our country, once again, in the arbitrary list of States that allegedly sponsor terrorism, a designation that shows an absolute disregard for the truth.
This is no surprise. The statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of January 14 already warned: "that the government of that country could reverse in the future the measures adopted today, as has happened on other occasions and as a sign of the lack of legitimacy, ethics, consistency and reason in its conduct against Cuba." It also affirmed that "U.S. politicians do not usually stop to find honest justification..." That is how they run their government in that country.
Trump has construed his coming to power as the coronation of an emperor. His ambition comprises, just to begin with, the conquest of Canada, the usurpation of Greenland, the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico and stripping the Panamanians of their canal. The hegemonic Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny, which were enforced with blood and fire in Latin America and the Caribbean, are the driving force of the new government team.
Those groups and politicians, who have made aggression against Cuba a way of life, profited for decades from the anti-Cuban business and today share the heady intoxication of the new president, are associated with him. They all bear a heavy responsibility in the difficult economic situation of the country and in the increase of the migratory flow from Cuba to the United States.
This new act of aggression by the U.S. government against the Cuban people shows, once again, the true, cruel and merciless purpose of these and so many other measures of siege and asphyxiation against Cuba for sake of dominating it. It constitutes a reaction of impotence given their inability to bend our will and the respect, sympathy and support that the Revolution commands among the peoples of the world.
The tightening of the economic blockade and the new aggressive measures will continue to weigh, with very harmful effects, on our economy, the standard of living, the potential for development and the legitimate dreams of justice and well-being of the Cuban people, as has been the case in recent years.
They will not deflect us from the Socialist course, from our determination to recover the economy, promote the widest possible solidarity, creativity, talent, spirit of work, and defend freedom, independence, sovereignty and the privilege of building a future without foreign interference as an ironclad stronghold.
The Cuban people appreciate the numerous expressions of support and solidarity received from all over the world, from governments, Cubans living abroad, parliaments, political, religious and social organizations, and political leaders from the United States and other countries.
No one should be mistaken. The Cuban people expressed itself with clear determination and force during the December 20 march. The conviction that CUBA WILL OVERCOME is what prevails here.
HOMELAND OR DEATH, WE SHALL OVERCOME!
Havana, January 21, 2025
(Cubaminrex)
Cuba
Conducts Bastion 2024
Strategic
Military Exercise

President
of the National Defense Council, Miguel Díaz-Canel
Bermúdez meets with Havana Defense Council on Bastion 2024
exercises.
On January 22, Cuba launched the island's Bastion 2024 Strategic Military Exercise. The exercise will culminate with National Defense Day on Saturday, January 25.
Bastion 2024 had been planned for November 2024 but was postponed due to Hurricanes Oscar in the eastern provinces and Rafael in the west, and the impact of earthquakes in Granma and Santiago de Cuba provinces.
Prior to the launching, the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in his capacity as President of Cuba's National Defense Council, met with Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, members of the National Defence Council, heads of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint). In his speech he stressed the importance of continuing to strengthen the country's military invincibility.
The meeting began by reviewing the Bastion 2024 Strategic Exercise conducted under the doctrine of "War of the Entire People." The fundamental objective of this doctrine is to increase the degree of preparation and cohesion of the leadership bodies and commands at all levels with the troops, the economy and the population, with the aim of ensuring Cuba's military invincibility. The exercise "aims to train the governing and command organs of the different structures responsible for national and territorial defence, in the organization of work in the interest of raising the country's readiness for defence, and the preparation of troops and the population, in order to confront the different actions of the enemy."
To this end, from January 22 to 24, manoeuvres and tactical exercises of different types are taking place, with the participation of FAR units, Minint and other components of the territorial defensive system. The FAR also informed that on Tuesday, January 21, the University Student Bastion was held, an expression of the participation of young people in the defence of their homeland.
The meeting also evaluated Cuba's response to irregular migration, actions to control crime and the challenges posed by social media.

University Student
Bastion, January 21, 2025
(Granma)
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca • Email: editor@cpcml.ca