Cuban authorities rejected the reiteration of the island as a state sponsor of the terrorism in a new report issued by the US government.
The reportpublished this February 27, corresponds to the year 2021, and it states that «andhe Cuban government has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism by granting safe harbor to terrorists.”
In response, President Miguel Díaz-Canel described as “spurious” the list of countries that, in Washington’s opinion, sponsor terrorism, and pointed out that “the true purpose of slandering the island as a terrorist is to justify the illegal blockade of States United against Cuba.
The Joe Biden administration kept, on the spurious list, the appointment of #Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The true purpose of slandering the Island as a terrorist is to justify the illegal blockade of the United States against #Cuba. #BetterNoBlock pic.twitter.com/4JP0y6kAqP
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) March 1, 2023
For their part, sources from the Cuban Foreign Ministry told the agency EFE that the publication of this report is “misleading” because it provides arguments that they reject and never considered valid, but also “are not current” and are not “contextualized” as such.
They also stressed that the document alludes to arrest warrants and extradition requests against members of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) —who were in Cuba in 2021 in the framework of interrupted peace talks—, but that these orders are currently suspended because negotiations were resumed after Gustavo Petro became president.
“Even when the misinformation in this report supposedly responds to data from 2021, its publication is shameful,” Johana Tablada, deputy director for the United States of the Foreign Ministry, said on Twitter, who estimated that “neither then nor now is there a single reason to include Cuba among countries that sponsor or do not cooperate in the fight against the scourge of terrorism.
In another tweet, Tablada herself stated that this classification of the island by the State Department “sIt is a designation mounted on a lie that discredits and calls into question the commitment of the United States in the fight against the scourge of terrorism.
It is a designation mounted on a lie that discredits and calls into question the commitment of #USA in fight against the scourge of terrorism, and leaves terrorists free to justify the cruel siege and the dirty operations of discrediting #USA vs #Cuba
— Johana Tablada de la Torre (@JohanaTablada) February 28, 2023
The United States report ensures, for its part, that the Cuban government “did not formally respond to the request for the extradition of two leaders” of the ELN “made by Bogotá.”
He also maintains that “Cuba rejected Colombia’s request to extradite 10 ELN leaders living in Havana after that group claimed responsibility for the 2019 bombing of a Bogotá police academy that killed 22 people and injured 87 others. ″.
In this regard, the general director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Eugenio Martínez, explained that the Government of Colombia suspended the extradition requests and deactivated the arrest warrants.
“How far does the incompetence and bad intentions of the United States go?” the diplomat wrote on Twitter, stressing that these guerrillas “are in Mexico today talking with the Colombian government,” because the peace talks have resumed. .
The Government of Colombia suspended the extradition requests, which were less than half of the 10 mentioned by the US, and deactivated the arrest warrants for others from the ELN who were in Cuba. How far does the incompetence and bad intentions of the US go?
— Eugenio Martínez Enríquez (@EugenioMtnez) February 28, 2023
The report also maintains that the island “It is also home to several American fugitives from justice wanted on charges related to political violence, many of whom have resided in Cuba for decades.”
The publication of the document by the Department of State responds to a rule that establishes the delivery to the US Congress of an annual report on the subject “complying with the criteria of the Law”, according to the document itself.
Said publication does not have administrative implications and is used mainly to guide Congress when determining the foreign aid offered to each country, according to what it refers to. EFE.
It is usually published after a year, although without a fixed periodicity, but on this occasion it has been delayed for reasons that have not been disclosed, adds the Spanish media, which specifies that the 2022 report has not been disclosed nor does it have a scheduled date.
The agency also explains that the decision to include or remove a State from the list of sponsors of terrorism “depends exclusively on the President of the United States and can be taken at any time.”
It is time to remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism
In the list that appeared in this latest report, Cuba shares the designation of state sponsor of terrorism with North Korea, Syria and Iran.
The island was first included on this list in 1982 and left it in 2015, during the thaw between Cuba and the United States under the mandate of Barack Obama. However, Donald Trump he included it again just days after leaving the White House.
At the end of 2021, after the 2020 report was presented, an official from the State Department assured that, at that time, that designation was kept “under review” like the rest of the policy towards Cuba.
Washington’s consideration of the island as a state sponsor of terrorism has not only been repeatedly criticized by Havana, but also by other governments and international entities, including the current government of Colombia and groups and organizations of the United States itself.
EFE / OnCuba
