Steve Cohen has been a member of the House of Representatives of the federal Congress since 2007

Havana, January 12 (RHC) US Congressman Steve Cohen this Thursday asked in a letter to President Joe Biden to begin the process to review and reverse the inclusion of Cuba in the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT).

Cohen, a member of the House of Representatives of Tennessee, argued that lifting the sanctions is not an endorsement of the Cuban government's policies, but rather a recognition that the current approach has failed the Cuban people. Instead, dialogue, travel and interaction between Cubans and Americans should be cultivated.

He recalled that the letter circulated when “three years ago today, nine days before leaving office, then-President Trump placed Cuba on the SSOT list. He stressed that the blockade has caused profound damage to the Cuban economy and people, and noted that the tightening of sanctions under President Trump, including those caused by the SSOT designation, is now one of the key factors driving the deepening of Cuba's humanitarian crisis.

Restrictions on foreign assistance and finance, as well as broken ties by companies and financial institutions that do not want to risk being associated with 'a sponsor of terrorism,' have helped cripple the Cuban economy and isolate the Cuban people from the global financial network, he said.

As a result, the growth of the private sector has been severely hampered and many Cubans abroad face difficulties in getting money to their families at home.

The Democratic representative stated that Trump's restoration of the SSOT on the basis that Cuba was supporting terrorism has no merit, and recalled that the Obama administration removed the Antillean nation from that list in 2015 after admitting that the basis for the designation was unfounded.

Cohen considered that this decision, which he described as “extremely popular,” helped improve relations between the Cuban and American people.

He said that he traveled to Cuba with President Obama in 2016 and experienced a strong sense of goodwill toward Americans and toward President Obama. After that trip, he became inspired by the possibilities of collaboration and growth of both two countries.

Steve Cohen has been a member of the House of Representatives of the federal Congress since 2007, and before that he was a senator from the state of Tennessee (1983–2006). (Source: PL)