The Cuban government affirmed this Thursday that the United States never had the intention of removing the island from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism because “it is convenient for them.”
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez declared that the United States has no plans to “correct the unfair designation of Cuba” since “it is convenient for its criminal policy of economic suffocation,” according to what he published on Twitter.
El Sec. Blinken confirma lo que era evidente: el actual gobierno de EEUU nunca tuvo la intención de corregir la injusta calificación de #Cuba como Estado patrocinador del terrorismo establecida por Trump, pues le resulta conveniente para su criminal política de asfixia económica.
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) March 23, 2023
Rodríguez echoed the statements this Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which he stated that in the United States “we are not planning” to remove the Caribbean country from the list.
During an appearance before the Foreign Relations committee of the House of Representatives, Blinken promised that, if there were a review, it would be based on the law and the criteria that it establishes, which, as he said, have a very high level.
https://twitter.com/NNOCuba/status/1638992413355302912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1638992413355302912%7Ctwgr%5Ee69109d105cd465aa846779770484434dbf1942d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba-ee-uu%2Fblinken-afirma-que-no-planean-sacar-a-cuba-de-lista-de-patrocinadores-del-terrorismo%2F
The Cuban foreign minister affirmed that Blinken “confirms that in fact that the qualifying lists of the State Department are nothing more than tools of political and economic coercion, totally divorced from such sensitive issues as terrorism, religion, human rights, drug trafficking, corruption and others.”
A little less than a month ago, the administration sent a report to Congress, corresponding to the year 2021, in which it is stated that “the Cuban government repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism by granting safe harbor to terrorists.”
Petro to Blinken: Cuba on the list of sponsors of terrorism is an injustice that must be corrected
Cuba’s inclusion on the list in January 2021 was one of the last decisions the Trump administration made before leaving power.
The United States then justified the measure, which entails several sanctions, alluding to the presence on the island of members of the Colombian ELN guerrilla, who traveled to Havana to start peace negotiations with the Colombian Executive.
In October 2023, Secretary Blinken had given a different response during a joint press conference with President Gustavo Petro in Bogotá, when asked about the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of international terrorism.
“We have clear laws, clear criteria, clear requirements, and we will continue as necessary to revisit those to see if Cuba continues to merit that designation,” he said then.
The island had been taken off the list in 2015, during the stage of rapprochement promoted by then U.S. President Barack Obama (2009-2017) and later stopped by Trump, who during his tenure redoubled sanctions against Cuba and paralyzed many of the measures of the “thaw” encouraged by his predecessor.
The current Biden administration has made some gestures towards the island, such as eliminating the limit on remittances to Cuba, but it is still far from Obama’s rapprochement.
OnCuba/EFE
