ANC WELCOMES RESTORATION OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN CUBA AND US

Wednesday, 01 July 2015

Johannesburg

Today, the President of the United States, Mr. Barack Obama announced the re-establishment of full diplomatic relations between his country and the People’s Republic of Cuba. This momentous announcement comes while South Africa is hosting on our soil the Cuban Five Heroes - Comrades Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, who were recently released by President Obama from a US jail - a triumph of international solidarity following almost two decades of incarceration for the Five. 

The African National Congress welcomes the restoration of the diplomatic relations between Cuba and the USA. This is an important step in the correct direction must be commended and strongly indicates a push towards the total normalisation of relations between the US and Cuba. To this end we should thank the USA administration of President Obama for the bold step that eluded many American President. 

We join the call  for the US Congress to hear the calls of the progressive peoples of the world and ensure that this important historic step decisively leads to the total lifting of the USA economic embargo of Cuba that has throttled the Cuban economy for many decades, without possibilities for trade with countries that have trade relations with the USA. This will allow Cuba to pursue its own chosen path of development and to develop its economy, without interference.

It is also important that Cuba has been removed from the wrong list of countries sponsoring terrorism. This allows it, without strings attached, to further strengthen its diplomatic and trade relations with various countries. Today’s developments allow for the possibility to deepen the people to people relations between the two countries. Now, Cubans exiled in the USA after the victory of the revolution, and those forced into exile by the USA authorities through various ways can now visit their families that they last saw, some even, several decades ago and those in Cuba could not visit them either because of the hostile USA policy towards Cuba. 

Statement issued by the African National Congress, July 1 2015