“With this action, we will once again hold the government of Cuba accountable and send a clear message: The Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of American justice,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
What is the list of state sponsors of terrorism?
The list was created on December 29, 1979 and then included four nations: Libya, Iraq, South Yemen and Syria. Subsequently, in 1982 Cuba was included. In 1984, Iran was included and in 1988 the DPR of Korea.
There are currently four countries on this infamous list, Cuba, the DPR of Korea, Iran and Syria. There is a proposal in the US Senate to include the Russian Federation in it.
The pretexts for re-including Cuba
The main pretext that the past Trump administration exposed for the re-designation is Cuba’s refusal to extradite to Colombia a group of 10 guerrilla leaders of the National Liberation Army of Colombia (ELN), accused of a car bomb attack two years ago on a police training school in Bogotá in which 21 cadets died.
In addition to suspending peace talks with the ELN in Cuba, the then Colombian President Iván Duque reactivated arrest warrants for them.
Cuba was re-designated a terrorist country for helping peace in Colombia. Picture ABC – News
In a May statement, the State Department said Cubawas “not fully cooperating” with counterterrorism efforts and cited its refusal to extradite guerrilla leaders to Colombia.
Cuba’s response to Colombian and U.S. demands has been that the 10 are on the island because of a request from Colombia, made during that country’s previous government, to allow them to live there while peace talks between Colombia and the ELN take place.
The Trump administration has accused Cuba of aiding and abetting President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, a socialist autocrat whom Washington has sought to overthrow. During the pandemic, Cuba’s relationship with the Trump administration has deteriorated further. Cuba’s deployment of medical brigades to a number of nations facing shortages of medical personnel, including Italy, drew words of praise from host countries but harsh condemnations from Washington, which accused Cubans of forcing doctors to work “for nothing”.
The inaction of the J. Biden administration, complicity by omission.
The economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba affected the Cuban people and already greatly limited the ability of Americans to do business or visit the island. But the absurd “terrorist label” hampers trade with third countries that Cuba depends on to import essential goods and discourage foreign investments in the country.
“This blatantly politicized designation makes a mockery of what had been an objective and credible measure of a foreign government’s active support for terrorism,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). “There is nothing remotely like it here. In fact, domestic terrorism in the United States poses a far greater threat to Americans than Cuba.”
Critics have long questioned the U.S. “interest” in placing Cuba on the list of terrorist countries ahead of other countries, attributing it to pressure from the anti-communist Cuban-American community in Florida.including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former senior National Security Council director Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump also limited the number of Cubans allowed to visit the United States.
After the absurd and criminal re – designation of Cuba in that list, the Biden administration did nothing to take Cuba out of it, or any other hostile action enacted during D. Trump era. That is because the fantasy of thinking the can “appease the Miami mafia and have their electoral support in Florida.
This is a blatant instance of the thief shouts “to the thief”, the main terrorist state in the world accusing peace – loving Cuba of terrorism.
*The author is a Cuba-American who lives in New York and seldom writes comments for Prensa Latina.
mh/jo
