The Joe Biden Administration has once again included Cuba on the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate” in the fight against terrorism, a decision that maintains the line of previous years.
“I hereby determine and certify to Congress that the following countries are not fully cooperating with United States counterterrorism efforts: Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, Syria, and Venezuela,” the secretary wrote. of State, Antony Blinken in the notice, published this Tuesday in the Federal Register.
The british agency Reuters, which has advanced the news, consulted with the State Department about the reasons that have led to keeping Cuba on this list, but for the moment it has not provided an answer.
The reaction that has not been long in coming is that of the Island’s Foreign Ministry. “The mendacious accusations against Cuba regarding terrorism persist from Washington, an abominable crime that the United States has practiced without scruples and that, opportunistically, it uses as a tool of coercion politics,” Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote on his Twitter account.
It is the third consecutive yearor that the Department of State, which must provide the list to Congress every year, includes the Island in this category, different from that of States that sponsor terrorism and whose decision is still pending.
Added to this is the shelter that, according to the United States, Cuba offers to criminals wanted and claimed from their country for crimes related to terrorism.
In 2020, the Government of Donald Trump added Cuba to this list for the first time since 2015. On that occasion and subsequent ones, the State Department attributed it to the regime’s refusal to extradite the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army to Colombia. who were in Havana, as Bogotá requested after an attack that left more than twenty dead. The Cuban government affirmed that the protocol of the talks prevented it from doing so, but the reason did not convince Washington, which has not stopped citing this reason in subsequent reports.
Added to this is the shelter that, according to the United States, Cuba offers to criminals wanted and claimed from their country for crimes related to terrorism.
Both reasons are also alleged from Washington when adding the Island to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which is pending to be updated. Although very similar, the consequences are more serious for this second case.
As explained by the State Department, the commercialization or granting of export licenses of defense articles and services with countries that are on the list of states that do not cooperate with terrorism is prohibited.
Meanwhile, in the case of states that sponsor terrorism, “people and countries that enter into commercial deals are penalized, foreign assistance from the United States is limited, exports and sales in the area of defense are prohibited, and certain controls on exports of dual-use items.
The Cuban government has been fighting for years to disappear from these lists that make foreign trade difficult for it, and its hopes were pinned on the Joe Biden Administration. The Democrat, who at the beginning of his term hinted that he would study a change in policy towards the Island, not only followed the line of pressure from his predecessor, Donald Trump, rather, it issued new sanctions as a result of the repression unleashed by the regime against peaceful protests on July 11, 2021.
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