Venezuela-Cuba Solidarity Movement

Caracas, October 17 (RHC)-- The Venezuela-Cuba Solidarity and Mutual Friendship Movement demanded Monday that the U.S. government remove the island from the list of countries that promote terrorism.

In a statement sent to Prensa Latina, the organization denounced that the decision of including that nation in "the terror list" becomes an unjust and inconsiderate action, when the reality is that Havana offered its territory to bring peace.

The movement affirmed that this country "has been one of the champions of peace" and mentioned what happened with Colombia when Cuba became "the perfect scenario" to initiate the peace process, requested by then-Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018).

The text recalled that very recently the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, recognized the "peaceful contribution" of the Antillean nation with his country, and the first thing he did was to ask the U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, during his visit to Bogota, to remove Cuba from the list.

It denounced that in the decision to include Cuba "in this kind of black list", involves the eternal enemies of the Revolution, Bob Meléndez and Marco Rubio, "protagonists of a network with the Cuban-American mafia and the State Department".

Likewise, it pointed out, it is the result of the biased media campaigns by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the CIA, with economic budgets, which do great damage to the island.

The communiqué stated that the Venezuela-Cuba Movement of Solidarity and Mutual Friendship thus joins the more than 300 faith-based organizations, churches, and believers from 23 countries of the world that are calling to remove Havana from the aforementioned list.

The text demands the lifting of the blockade and the hundreds of coercive measures against the Cuban people, maintained for more than 60 years.

Among the petitioners are Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Japanese nun Filo Hirota, the Communion of Reformed Churches of Cuba, and Reverend Chris Ferguson, of the Reformed University of Canada, among others.

The note demanded, "to remove the terrible label" imposed on the island, as a measure of elemental justice for its contribution to peace in the continent, and especially in Colombia, where for more than 40 years it participated in the search for a solution to the conflict. (Source: PL)