In recent days, the authorities in Richmond approved a proclamation urging the Trump administration to remove Cuba from the illegal list.

By María Josefina Arce

The re-inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism by U.S. President Donald Trump in January of this year, after he assumed his second term in office, and the maintenance of the inhumane blockade, generate, as is well known, a broad rejection at the international level.

Even within the United States, numerous voices have been raised in demand of Cuba's exclusion from this arbitrary classification, alongside the demand to end the economic, commercial and financial siege.

The authorities in Richmond, California, recently approved a proclamation urging the Trump administration to remove Cuba from Washington's unilateral list, which is not endorsed by any international organisation.

The document also calls for the lifting of the economic blockade, which, as it rightly points out, prevents most relations with the northern country and punishes other nations that try to interact with Havana.

This is not the first time that the city of Richmond has shown solidarity with the Cuban people. On several occasions, it has spoken out against the unilateral economic blockade, which has been reinforced by Cuba's recent inclusion on the list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism.

There is growing condemnation of the blockade against Cuba in the United States. City councils, legislatures, county boards, unions, and other organisations are calling for an end to the blockade and for relations to be normalised.

In 2024, numerous initiatives were carried out in the US in support of the Cuban people and their struggle against the genocidal economic siege. From March 2023 to February last year, this siege caused losses to the Caribbean nation totalling more than 5 billion dollars.

The work of the friends of Cuba was tireless, resorting to sending letters and signatures, requesting meetings with congressmen, and holding public demonstrations.

Notably, donations were collected to alleviate the effects of the blockade in essential areas such as health and education, which impact the daily lives of Cubans.

However, during his second term, Trump once again resorted to his iron-fisted policy, which he had already implemented from 2017 to 2021 when he occupied the White House. This policy materialised in the form of more than 240 measures against Cuba, as well as its inclusion on the spurious list, from which it had been excluded in 2015 by President Barack Obama.

Trump is now adopting new provisions against the Cuban people once again, reversing Joe Biden's decision to remove the Caribbean nation from the list of countries with which the US has a questionable relationship.

The Trump administration is ignoring the demands of many of its citizens, as well as the 32 resolutions condemning the economic siege that have been passed by the UN General Assembly since 1992.