Biden extended the emergency declaration with Cuba that prevents US-registered ships from entering the island

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday extended the emergency declaration with Cuba for another year, which has been in operation since 1996 after the shooting down of two civilian planes belonging to the Cuban exile organization “Brothers to the Rescue”.

In a proclamation sent to Congress, Biden assured that “there is still a need to proceed with this national emergency,” which will prevent “the unauthorized entry of a US-registered ship into Cuban territorial waters.”

25 years ago, on February 24, 1996, Cuban MiG fighters attacked three planes belonging to the exile group “Brothers to the Rescue”, dedicated to spotting rafters fleeing the island with missiles.

During the action, the Cuban MiGs shot down two of the Cuban organization-in-exile’s Cessnas Skymaster and killed four of its crew, prompting the government’s emergency declaration of then President Bill Clinton.

Cuba said the planes violated its airspace to distribute propaganda material against the regime the US government insisted they were in international airspace in the north of the island.

On March 1, 1996, Clinton issued the emergency declaration, which was softened, although upheld, by President Barack Obama’s executive branch, despite having re-established relations with Havana in 2014.

The possibility of US-registered ships entering Cuban territorial waters on a large scale without permission would disrupt the United States’ international relations with Cuba. by allowing or providing the means to enable mass migration of Cuban civilians and threaten our national security, ”Biden said in his statement.

On the other hand, Meeting of the Cuban resistance, which includes groups outside and within Cuba, wrote a letter to Biden asking him to end the impunity enjoyed by the Cuban regime, which he believes is “the main obstacle” to change on the island.

The letter was published Wednesday, accompanied by a statement emphasizing that “it has been signed by the same groups of Cubans and Cuban-Americans who were totally ignored by the Obama / Biden administration in 2015.”

These groups did not know what was going on behind the scenes, that the United States was meeting privately, negotiating and making painful concessions, without guarantees, to Cuba’s criminal regime., all under the auspices of a false premise of change, “the signatories said of the” thaw “in the bilateral relations promoted by now former Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro.

According to the statement, the Assembly, a platform of nearly 40 organizations from inside and outside the island, wants to take advantage of the fact that Biden, who was vice president of the United States when that happened, has said he will listen to Cuban-Americans , which he has defined as “ambassadors for freedom,” in shaping his policy towards the island.

E.In the letter, Biden is asked not to remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, which it was incorporated in 2020 by the Donald Trump administration, and don’t be tempted to “deal with the symptoms of dictatorship.”

“While the temptation may be to address the symptoms of dictatorship, such as political prisoners and refugees, we urge you to address the causes of political, economic, cultural and social oppression,” they stressed.

According to the signatories “The main obstacle to change in Cuba is to stop the sense of impunity that the communist dictatorship has always displayed despite the many crimes against humanity it has committed.They added.

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