MIAMI, United States. – United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated this Wednesday that Washington’s policy towards the Cuban regime will not change during President Joe Biden’s remaining time in the White House.
“I do not anticipate any changes in our policy towards Cuba during the term of this administration,” said the head of US diplomacy.
Blinken’s statements came during a hearing of the Congressional Foreign Relations Committee in which Cuban-American Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar asked him directly if Cuba was under consideration to be removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
In response, the Secretary of State reiterated: “I do not foresee any changes to our policy between now and January 20.”
The Cuban communist dictatorship finances terrorists, harbors criminals and is an ally of other terrorist states.
Cuba must remain on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism!
He @SecBlinken He confirmed to me today that he does not foresee any changes.
GOOD, let it stay on the list! pic.twitter.com/wzh1XHwCLA
— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) December 11, 2024
Cuba was included for the first time on this list in 1982, but former President Barack Obama withdrew it in 2015 as part of the bilateral rapprochement process. However, in 2021, then-President Donald Trump included the Island again. Despite the efforts of the Cuban regime to get off this list, which limits its access to financial markets, the current US administration has remained firm in its position. .
However, in May of this year, Washington removed Cuba from the list of countries that do not fully cooperate in the fight against terrorisma minor gesture compared to the impact of remaining on the main list of sponsors of terrorism.
On that occasion, Blinken assured that Cuba’s departure from said list was due to the fact that the Colombian Government, chaired by Gustavo Petrohad suspended the extradition orders on the members of the guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who were on the Island.
Furthermore, he justified that the Government of Joe Biden had “resumped police cooperation with Cuba as part of the national interest” of the US.
“We have made the determination [de sacar a Cuba de la lista] due to the annual review, designation requirements and changing circumstances,” Blinken explained.
Despite Cuba’s removal from the list of countries that do not cooperate with US anti-terrorist efforts, the Island remained on the list of States that sponsor terrorism.
After hearing the news of Cuba’s removal from the list prepared annually by the State Department, the Cuban-American senator Marco Rubio (Republican of Florida) described the withdrawal from the Island as an “absurd movement.”
“I have contacted the State Department for answers about this absurd move,” wrote Rubio on his social network account X, formerly Twitter. “President Biden is making it very clear that he wants to eliminate the Cuban dictatorship from the list of state sponsors of terrorism,” he said.
“The criminal and illegitimate regime in Havana supports foreign terrorist organizations in Colombia, and harbors ETA terrorists, as well as fugitives wanted by US courts,” the senator concluded his message.
In March 2023, transcended that the State Department would keep Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, despite the island’s regime’s campaign to be removed from the group.
A report published by the State Department indicates that, for this designation, Washington has taken into account the Cuban regime’s “repeated support” for “acts of international terrorism, by granting safe haven to terrorists.”
Cuba had previously been designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1982, due to its long history of providing advice, shelter, communications, training and financial support to guerrilla groups and individual terrorists, the document recalls.
However, Cuba’s designation was revoked in 2015 after “a thorough review that found that the Island met the statutory criteria for revocation.”
Several years later, in 2021, the Secretary of State again determined that Cuba had provided “repeated support for acts of international terrorism” since its removal from the list prepared by the State Department in 2015.
