The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba condemns, in the strongest and most absolute terms, the fraudulent designation of Cuba as a State that sponsors terrorism which, in a cynical and hypocritical move, has been announced by the government of the United States.

For some months now, there have been speculations about the possibility of including Cuba in a unilateral list issued by the State Department that designates countries, without having received any mandate or having any legitimacy whatsoever to do that and without having any genuine motivation in relation to terrorism and its sequels, in order to use it as an instrument to denigrate and implement economic coercive measure against other countries that may refuse to indulge the whims of the US imperialism.

The announcement made by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is an arrogant action by a discredited, dishonest and morally bankrupted government. It is well known –and there is little doubt about it- that the true motivation behind this action is to impose additional obstacles to any prospective restoration of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States.

Cuba is not a State that sponsors terrorism and this is a truth that has been widely recognized by everybody.  Cuba’s official and well-known policy and impeccable behavior has been that of rejecting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, particularly State terrorism, wherever and by and against whoever committed.

Cuba has been a State victim of terrorism and our people have suffered from it first hand, at the cost of 3 478 fatalities and 2099 persons with disabilities due to the actions carried out by the government of the United States or that have been perpetrated and sponsored from the territory of that country with the acquiescence of the US official authorities.  We Cubans disdainfully deplore every maneuver aimed at manipulating such a sensitive issue to achieve gross politically opportunistic goals.