Nothing new has come out of the bilateral meeting that Cuba and the United States held in Havana on April 27 and 28 to evaluate the cooperation of both countries in the fight against terrorism, although the official media cubadebate publish this Monday a brief interview “exclusively” with Inés Fors Fernández, director of Bilateral Issues of the US Department of Foreign Affairs.
In the conversation, the official insisted that the island must be removed from the US list of sponsors of terrorism while accusing Washington of having promoted most of the “more than 700 acts of international terrorism” perpetrated against Cuba. .
Fors Fernández, who begins the interview by normalizing the meeting with Washington – the fourth since the agreements were signed in 2015 – vindicates Cuba’s “unquestionable” commitment to the fight against terrorism, which he attributes precisely to being the victim of “organized” attacks , financed and executed by the US Government or by individuals and organizations that receive refuge or act with impunity in that territory”.
Cuba claims to be the victim of attacks “organized, financed and executed by the US Government or by individuals and organizations that receive refuge or act with impunity in that territory.”
The official puts the fatalities at 3,478 and the disabled at 2,099, although she does not explain the origin of these data and mentions “some examples”, including alleged projects “to shoot down civilian Cuban planes between 1974 and 1979”, “more than 600 plans to attack Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, the attacks with bombs in hotels, commercial and recreational centers in Havana between 1997 and 1998” or “the kidnappings of boats and aircraft that occurred between 1959 and 2001”.
also includes the attack suffered by the Cuban Embassy in Washington in 2020for which a man with mental health problems was arrested in the US, or that of Parisin July 2021.
It does not stop there and, as usual, adds to these facts the economic impact generated by the embargo. “The figures of economic damage derived from acts of sabotage to our sugar harvests, pig production, tobacco and various facilities are in the millions,” adds Fors Fernández, for whom these facts are enough for Cuba to be, as a victim, a country committed to the fight against terrorism.
Despite the abundance of contrasting data on the role of Havana in the reception and military preparation of thousands of guerrillas and terrorists from dozens of countries, the official assures that “the territory of Cuba has never been used, nor will it ever be used, to organize, finance or carry out terrorist acts against any country”.
Since the Donald Trump government included the island on the list of sponsors of terrorism in 2021, just before leaving the White House, Washington has outstanding as fundamental reasons for its maintenance the refusal to hand over to Colombia the representatives of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who were in Havana for the peace negotiations. Bogotá claimed them as a result of the attemptclaimed by the organization, against a military school in 2019 in the capital, which cost the lives of 23 cadets, but the regime rejected the extradition, alleging that the immunity of the negotiators was part of the agreements for the talks.
Added to this are the cases of shelter for several major criminals claimed by the US, from the terrorist Joanne Chesimard, known as Assata Shakur, to two plane hijackers, the murderer of a state police officer or a thief who stole more than 7 million dollars in a US bank.
However, for Fors Fernández, “Cuba’s presence on that list is an action of political and economic coercion, which ignores the genuine and honest will to face the danger posed by terrorism” and, the official added, “US experts in national security have confirmed that there is no evidence that Cuba supports terrorism, and that it can be an important partner in the region in confronting these phenomena”.
The Cuban government tries to show itself as a reliable partner of the United States – which, for the moment, is not considering remove the Island from the blacklist– but he did not stop criticizing, as he had already announced, “the hijacking of aircraft and boats”, in reference to the recent cases of people who fled Cuba using state means of transportation and have received immigration protection in the US.
Díaz-Canel reiterated to Russia “unconditional support” and “firm and systematic denunciation, in all international events, in relation to the conflict orchestrated by the Government of the United States”
The interview is yet another example of the Island’s lurching with the United States, which it tries to get closer to on the one hand, specifically because of the economic consequences of being included in the aforementioned list of sponsors of terrorism, but without ceasing to throw all kinds of of accusations. The most recent, to hold him responsible this Saturday –albeit for the umpteenth time– for being guilty of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Meeting with the Chairman of the DumaViacheslav Volodin, who visited the Island to participate in the cooperation commission between the Parliaments of both countries, Miguel Díaz-Canel reiterated to Russia “unconditional support” and “firm and systematic denunciation, in all international events, in relation to the orchestrated conflict by the Government of the United States, with the aim of bringing the NATO borders with Russia closer to inadmissible lines”.
The Russian politician joins the list of compatriots who have traveled to Cuba in recent months, from the Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, to the spy Nikolai Patrushev and, more intensely, the economic adviser Boris Titov, who already acts de facto as adviser on the same matter of the regime. “This visit is an expression of the excellent state of relations between the Russian Federation and Cuba,” said the Cuban president, confirming the fears of civil society, which are already talking about “loss of sovereignty in favor of Moscow.”
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