The National Confederation of Independent Trade Union Unity (Conusi) today joined the voices in Panama calling on the United States to remove Cuba from a spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
The trade union organisation, whose secretary general is Marco Andrade, said in its statement that the media is unfounded and contrary to international law.
The Cuban people are not sponsors of terrorism, but have been victims of it, including state terrorism, promoted by elements in the service of the Central Intelligence Agency and the White House, Conusi said in his message.
The group recalled that one of these criminals, Luis Posada Carriles (now deceased), who in 1976 organised the sabotage of a Cubana de Aviación plane in mid-flight, with 73 fatalities, was the same person who attempted an attempt on Fidel Castro’s life in the auditorium of the University of Panama during the Ibero-American Summit held in 2000.
For Conusi, the measure only seeks to justify the cruel blockade that Washington has been imposing on the island for more than 60 years, which it rejects, as do the rest of the countries and peoples of the world.
For its part, the provincial chapter of solidarity with Cuba in the western territory of Chiriquí indicated in a communiqué that in a contradictory manner the White House excludes the island from the countries that did not cooperate with the fight against terrorism in 2023, but maintains it on the illegal list of nations sponsoring terrorism.
This situation, the text adds, generates serious consequences that affect the development of Cuban state programmes and have repercussions on the conditions and quality of life of families.
The strategy, add the Chirica activists, is aimed at creating an atmosphere of social instability characterised by chaos and violence, where hatred and intolerance reign, causing the fracturing of the Cuban family and jeopardising the continuity of the Revolution and its socialist project.
The critical situation of the moment demands that Cuba’s inclusion in the illegal and spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism imposed by the US government, without evidence, which is used to maintain and unleash new sanctions that deepen the harmful effects of the economic, commercial and financial siege that they also demanded be eliminated, be rejected outright.
The day before, the Asociación Martiana de Cubanos Residentes en Panamá delivered a letter to Foreign Minister Janaina Tewaney, respectfully requesting that her government urge its US counterpart to remove the island from the unilateral list.
Similar demands have been made in various communiqués by the National Workers’ Centre of Panama, the Authentic Federation of Workers and the Cuba solidarity chapters in the provinces of Colón and the capital city, among other organisations.