Cuba remains on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism
Cuba remains on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, but takes a big step forward by being considered a nation that collaborates against terrorists.
In a tremendous contraction, the United States issued a list of countries that collaborate, cooperate or assist in the fight against terrorism, but remains among the nations that sponsor it.
The United States confirmed Thursday that Cuba remains on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism despite admitting that it cooperates with the island in some activities to combat terrorism.
But it’s actually a strange contradiction, which the U.S. government is trying to answer.
“You can cooperate on counterterrorism, but we still believe that there are actions that are being taken that support terrorist activities,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel justified at a press conference.
Patel declined to answer the question of what specific actions Cuba must take to be removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Cuba was included in 2021 and that entails a series of economic sanctions.
Joe Biden’s administration keeps Cuba on that list despite the fact that yesterday it removed it from the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate with anti-terrorism efforts” (NFCC).
Washington and Havana resumed police cooperation in 2023, including in the area of counter-terrorism.
Thus, the State Department determined that continued certification of Cuba as a country that does not fully cooperate “is no longer appropriate”.
Cuba remains on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism
The Cuban government on Wednesday considered this decision insufficient and demanded that the U.S. go a step further and remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism
The inclusion of Cuba on the U.S. list in January 2021 was one of the last decisions made by the Administration of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021) before leaving power.
The United States then justified the measure by alluding to the presence on the island of members of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, who traveled to Havana to hold peace negotiations with the Colombian government.
To designate a country as a sponsor of terrorism, U.S. law requires the Secretary of State to determine that the government of that nation has repeatedly provided support to terrorist groups.
Cuba had been part of the list of countries sponsoring terrorism since 1982 but came off in 2015, during the rapprochement stage of then U.S. President Barack Obama (2009-2017) that was later stopped by Trump.
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The influential Gambian newspaper The Standard published today in its print and digital editions a new call by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to the U.S. government to remove the Caribbean island from the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
The article published by the daily newspaper of this West African nation, taken from the Prensa Latina news agency, states that Díaz-Canel urged Washington to do the right thing and remove Cuba from this arbitrary list.
He adds that the head of state pointed out on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that since the White House administration found that Cuba cooperates in the battle against terrorism, it should do the coherent thing and remove it from that designation, as well as put an end to the coercive economic measures that go with it.
