Below is the text of a letter that the Workers’ Party has sent to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, in relation to US sanctions against Cuba and the recent designation of Cuba, by the US government, as a sponsor of terrorism.

Dear Minister Coveney,

I write to you on behalf of the Workers’ Party in relation to the international sanctions imposed on Cuba by the United States of America.

As you will be aware, as Cuba is a relatively small country, such sanctions, covering over 240 separate areas, are crippling in their effect. Sanctions are an expression of hostility, just short of war, and as such should be reserved as an instrument of policy in only extreme cases.

Further, given the de facto control of the international financial system by the United States the effects of such sanctions are not merely confined to the bilateral relations between the countries but impede third-party countries, including Ireland, from interacting with Cuba according to their mutual wishes.

Cuba has no record of hostile economic or military actions against the United States. On the contrary, the hostility is entirely the other way, with the aim of preventing the Cuban people from developing their country according to their sovereign wishes.

Apart from the inherent injustice associated with poverty-building sanctions, their imposition has significant implications for the rule of law in international affairs and the ability of nations to pursue the paths as demanded by their own populations.

For, by acceding to the sanctions regime, Ireland is implicitly acknowledging the United States as its de facto dominant power, irrespective of the niceties of de jury sovereignty that are maintained. This is a most troubling result, not only for the State’s capacity to pursue its own policies for the benefit of the Irish people but makes a mockery of the sacrifices of past generations from all sides of the political divide who struggled for Irish freedom.

Further, not surprisingly, the situation deteriorated under the ignorant policies pursued by the previous U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo who, in the last days of the Trump administration, entirely without evidence, designated Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism.

The sheer stupidity of this designation is evident from the complete absence of evidence with which the moronic Pompeo made the decision. It is difficult to overstate the falseness of the decision, not least because Cuba has been the victim of terrorist actions emanating from the United States.

But, as with the sanctions, it is not just the obvious issue, in this case the falseness of allegations, that is relevant: by itself the decision poses the question as to whether the United States is going to be allowed by other sovereign states to simply manufacture reality from imaginary narratives.

Ireland has a duty to act honestly and honourably with respect to reality and not to turn a blind eye to it because a powerful nation demands otherwise.

This coming May, the United Nations will once again debate the U.S. sanctions regime. We urge that the Irish government take a strong, public stand against it and support the resolution calling for it to end.

Furthermore, we request that Ireland uses its bilateral influence with the U.S. and, as appropriate, that of its position on the United Nations Security Council to demand the Biden administration retract Mr. Pompeo’s designation of Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism.

Yours sincerely
Gavin Gleason
Director International Department
The Workers’ Party