Iraq became the temporary presiding country this Monday, following its selection at a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Group held last year to consider the candidate for the position
Havana, Jan 14 (RHC) The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, expressed his congratulations to Iraq on its upcoming role as the president of the G77 and China in 2025.
Through the platform X, Rodríguez expressed his best wishes for the success of the founding country of this group of nations, and reaffirmed Cuba’s commitment to supporting its leadership.
He also acknowledged the efforts made by Uganda in leading the coalition in 2024.
Iraq became the temporary presiding country this Monday, following its selection at a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Group held last year to consider the candidate for the position.
The G77, established on June 15, 1964, by 77 non-aligned nations, is now the largest group of countries in the United Nations, encompassing more than 130 nations and representing over 80% of the global population. (Source: Prensa Latina)
Jan 14 (Belly of the Beast) In a last-second surprise move, the Biden administration has removed Cuba from the U.S. government’s State Sponsors of Terrorism List.
There is “no credible evidence at this time of ongoing support by Cuba of international terrorism,” according to a senior administration official.
There was no credible evidence that Cuba sponsored terrorism when Trump put Cuba on the terror list four years ago.
But Biden ignored calls from across the political spectrum – including the UN, former U.S. officials and members of his own party – until now.
To read more about how Biden embraced Trump’s designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, check out our latest article by Alyssa Oursler and Jack McGrath.
Biden Also Suspends Title III
The Biden administration will also suspend Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, according to a senior administration official.
Title III allows U.S. claimants whose property was nationalized during the Cuban Revolution to sue companies for doing business on that property.
Dozens of lawsuits were filed against U.S. and European companies since Trump activated Title III in 2019.
Title III dissuaded foreign companies from investing in Cuba, cutting the island off from investment.
To learn more about Title III and its impact on Cuba’s economy read our article Billboards and Backchannels.
“Unilateral Steps” Could Lead to Prisoner Release
In a third move, the Biden administration is eliminating a list of Cuban “restricted entities” that are off limits to U.S. individuals and companies. The list includes dozens of Cuban hotels.
The list was established after Trump announced his rollback of Obama’s opening with Cuba on June 16, 2017.
A Biden administration official described these moves as “unilateral steps.”
However, the official said the administration expected these measures would lead to the release of “the many dozens of Cubans arrested in connection with the July 2021 protests.”
The official said the Catholic Church has advanced in talks with Cuba to release “political prisoners” and “those who have been detained unjustly.”
Policy Expected to be Short-Lived
Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, Title III, and the raft of other sanctions imposed by Trump, have devastated Cuba’s economy.
Throughout his administration, Biden has ignored calls to return to Obama’s opening, instead embracing Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Cuba.
This sudden change in Biden’s Cuba policy would have been a promising sign for U.S.-Cuba relations and for the Cuban economy.
However, with Cuban-American hardliner Marco Rubio picked as Secretary of State, the incoming administration is expected to reverse the last-second moves.
To read more about Rubio and how his appointment as Secretary of State may affect Cuba policy, read our article HERE.
If you haven’t seen it, don’t miss our groundbreaking documentary about Biden’s Cuba policy, Uphill on the Hill.
Cuba was first unfairly included on the list in 1982 by the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Photo: EFE
Jan 14 (teleSUR) The US State Department on Tuesday removed Cuba from the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism, according to a statement issued by the White House.
In the document, the agency confirmed that “the United States maintains as a central objective of its policy the need to achieve greater freedom and democracy, greater respect for human rights, and greater freedom of enterprise in Cuba. To achieve these objectives, practical engagement with Cuba and the Cuban people will be necessary, going beyond what is described in the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-5) and taking into account recent developments in Cuba and the changing regional and global context.”
Accordingly, the White House announced that NSPM-5 is revoked, whereby “the Secretary of State will immediately rescind the list developed pursuant to Section 3(a)(i) of NSPM-5, and the Secretary of the Treasury will initiate a process to adjust current regulations as a result of this revocation of NSPM-5.”
At the beginning of January 2021, days before Donald Trump left the White House, Cuba was included in the list again, from which it had been removed by the Obama administration in 2015, during the period of bilateral rapprochement that took place at the end of the second term of this American politician.
Cuba was first included on the list in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan.
Havana, Jan 9 (Prensa Latina) Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez expressed Cuba’s solidarity with California, United States, on Thursday, in the face of the forest fires that have spread to that state and have killed at least five people.
“Our solidarity and empathy with #California, USA, in the face of the large-scale fires that have spread in that state and are causing loss of life and considerable material damage in several communities around the city of #LosAngeles,” Rodriguez wrote on X.
The magnitude of the fires, which already have around five active outbreaks (Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Woodley and Lidia fires), spread rapidly due to the incidence of strong Santa Ana winds, causing the evacuation of at least 30,000 residents in areas of the Los Angeles community.
According to Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony C. Marrone, many people who ignored evacuation orders have significant injuries.
The flames have devastated Pacific Palisades and left an “apocalyptic” scene in the neighborhood, local media reported, whose images showed that several main roads in Los Angeles were jammed as local residents tried to flee, and many were forced to abandon their vehicles on the roads.
The Government of the United States assigned five Forest Service tanker planes and ten federal firefighting helicopters to quell the calls that are still out of control in the south of that US western state.
In addition, the Forest Service previously positioned dozens of fire trucks that are ready to be deployed as needed.
Havana, Jan 11 (Prensa Latina) Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez expressed gratitude on Saturday for the latest show of solidarity from the Indian Government with the Cuban people and authorities.
“We thank the Government of India for sending a shipment of medicines for the areas hit by Hurricane Rafael in Cuba,” the foreign minister wrote on his X profile.
“This solidarity aid is an example of the friendship that exists between the two nations,” he added.
On Friday, precisely, India reaffirmed its ties of friendship and cooperation with Cuba in the context of the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of good official relations between both States.
India was one of the first countries to recognize the Cuban State after the revolutionary victory in 1959, Ambassador in Havana Armstrong Changsan said at a ceremony at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba.
In statements to Prensa Latina, Changsan confirmed that a first shipment of medicines had left for Havana to help the victims of the two hurricanes that hit Cuba’s eastern and western regions at the end of last year.
Havana, Jan 13 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban Immunoessay Center signed an agreement for Cooperation in Scientific Research with the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology (EIMB) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), it was revealed today.
According to several publications in the official profile of the Cuban institution in X, the agreement is focused on obtaining products that are priorities for medical, sanitary and public health care in both countries.
In this regard, the president of BioCubaFarma, Mayda Mauri, commented that the consolidation of these agreements is the expansion of the internationalization in the research-development activity, which constitutes a priority of attention for this entity in terms of science and innovation in this year 2025.
The Immunoessay Center is a High Technology company that researches, develops, produces and markets products and technologies for in vitro diagnosis, equipment and accessories intended for medical care and the research of hereditary-metabolic, transmissible and chronic non-transmissible diseases.
Another of its lines of work includes technical assistance to laboratories and training of the personnel who employ them in Cuba and in the rest of the world.
SUMA technology stands out among the products of this company and is a fundamental technological support for important national health programs such as the Maternal-Child program for prenatal care and control of mother-fetus transmission of pathologies such as HIV and hepatitis B, as well as in the discovery of congenital malformations.
Caracas, Jan 12 (Prensa Latina) On behalf of President Nicolás Maduro, Foreign Minister Yván Gil today thanked his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez, for rejecting the call for intervention in Venezuela by former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe.
“Faced with the threats of a declining empire and its local accomplices, Venezuela is strengthened by the unconditional support of friends and allies in solidarity,” the senior diplomat wrote on his Telegram account.
Gil extended his most sincere thanks to Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez “for his firm rejection of irresponsible calls for military intervention, which threaten the life and peace of our peoples.”
Rodríguez stated in X that “the irresponsible requests for an international military intervention in Venezuela, made by various actors, are a serious fact that we reject and that, if this adventure were to go ahead, it would have considerable and unpredictable consequences for regional peace and security.”
The Bolivarian Minister for Foreign Affairs also valued what he called Iran’s “timely statements” in rejection of plans for military intervention and the hardening of unilateral coercive measures promoted by those who seek to destabilize peace.
He expressed his deep gratitude to the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, Esmail Baqai, for his message of congratulations to the Venezuelan people after the peaceful and democratic inauguration of Maduro on January 10.
In an event the day before in Cúcuta, Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) called for “an international intervention, preferably endorsed by the United Nations,” to remove the legitimate constitutional government of Nicolás Maduro, who was sworn in as President for a new six-year term.
The former Colombian president’s statements were also joined on social network X by the fugitive from Venezuelan justice and resident abroad (Spain) Leopoldo López, who called for “seriously consider the proposal.”
The day before, at the closing ceremony of the International World Antifascist Festival, held in Caracas, Maduro called Uribe “a sad paramilitary character and drug trafficker, murderer, criminal and coward” and called on him to come to the front of the troops, show his face and not send others.
The humanitarian aid includes medications such as antibiotics, antipyretics, painkillers, oral solutions, and muscle relaxants
Havana, Jan 10 (RHC) The Indian government has dispatched a shipment of vital medical supplies to Cuba today, in an effort to aid the island’s recovery from the devastating impact of Hurricane Rafael in November.
On the platform X, Randhir Jaiswal, the official spokesman of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that the humanitarian aid includes medications such as antibiotics, antipyretics, painkillers, oral solutions, and muscle relaxants.
In June 2024, the Indian authorities sent humanitarian assistance to Cuba corresponding to raw materials for the production of medicines, as a reflection of their commitment to the historical friendship between the two nations.
In June 2024, the Indian government also sent a cargo of humanitarian assistance to Cuba, containing raw materials for pharmaceutical production. The shipment consisted of 90 tons of nine active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) produced in India.
The cargo is employed in the manufacturing of crucial antibiotics in the form of tablets, capsules, syrups, and injections, which are essential for the management of chronic infectious diseases.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized at that time that the support reiterates India’s position as the global pharmacy and underscores its dedication to the long-standing friendship with Cuba. (Source: Prensa Latina)
Havana, Jan 11 (Prensa Latina) India reaffirmed its bonds of friendship and cooperation with Cuba on the 65th anniversary of bilateral relations, and ratified its commitment to working with Cuba and the Global South nations.
The Indian Government was one of the first to recognize the Cuban State after the revolutionary triumph in 1959, Indian Ambassador in Havana Armstrong Changsan recalled at a ceremony held in the emblematic Hotel Nacional de Cuba on Friday evening.
Following a visit by Commander Ernesto Che Guevara to New Delhi that year, the two countries established official relations on January 12, 1960.
Since then, Cuba and India started a “way for cooperation and friendship marked by high-level visits, cultural exchanges, development cooperation, close coordination in multilateral fora, and the defense of the Global South cause,” the Indian diplomat noted.
“We assess our strong bilateral relationship and look forward to continuing to work together to address common challenges and explore new ways of cooperation in the next few years,” Changsan added.
He told Prensa Latina that a first shipment consisting of medicines departed for Havana on January 10 to help the victims of the two hurricanes that hit Cuba’s eastern and western regions in October and November.
Cuba and India have actively participated in the exchange of knowledge and contests with developing countries through several initiatives in health care, education, and natural disaster management, among others, he added.
Attended by Cuban professionals who have benefited from ITEC courses and officials from the Foreign Trade and Foreign Investments Ministry (MINCEX), the Science, Technology, and Environment Ministry (CITMA), and the Foreign Ministry (MINREX), the ceremony also marked World Hindi Day and Overseas Indian Day.
Havana, 11 Jan (Prensa Latina) The Cuban Government considered the day on which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro took office for his third term historic, according to reports.
“A historic day, full of joy and commitment to the Homeland of Bolívar, Sucre, Chávez and Maduro,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry posted on its X profile on Saturday.
Cuba is with Venezuela, in a show of solidarity and support for brother President Maduro in his third term, the text adds.
It also expresses Cuban authorities’ support “for the civil-military union” of the Venezuelan people.
On Friday, President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in as the President of Venezuela for the 2025-2031 six-year term.
In a solemn session in the Elliptical Hall of the Federal Legislative Palace, the re-elected president took his oath in a symbolic act on the original Constitution signed by Commander Hugo Chávez after its approval in 1999.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel attended the ceremony together with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, among other outstanding figures.
