{"id":233116,"date":"2021-01-15T10:43:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T15:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=233116"},"modified":"2021-01-15T10:43:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T15:43:54","slug":"task-for-biden-to-take-cuba-off-the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/task-for-biden-to-take-cuba-off-the-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Task for Biden: To take Cuba off the list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, the <\/span>attack on the Capitol<\/span><\/a> by Trump supporters, encouraged by the chief inciter, will not be the latest nonsense from an administration the United States is desperate to end. Trump insists on causing as much damage as possible to America\u2019s interests and values. He not only sabotages an orderly transition but insists on torpedoing the mandate of the American people to the incoming administration. On Monday, the Trump administration began with the <\/span>inclusion of Cuba in the list of terrorist countries with no cause at all<\/span><\/a>, on Tuesday Trump will celebrate the alleged completion of the wall on the border with Mexico (which by the way Mexico never paid). No one knows the price that the United States will have to pay for the next irresponsibility of Trump and his sycophants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Few accomplices in that disaster emulate Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In December, Pompeo announced that the presidential transition in January would be \u201cto the second term of the Trump administration.\u201d The dream of the coronation turned into a nightmare. On January 20, 2021, Pompeo will step out of Foggy Bottom as the last of the cabinet members devoid of the slightest shame to resign. After the insurrection against Congress, a branch of which he himself was a part, Pompeo is trying to compensate for his lack of courage with a burst of torpedoes against policies announced by the president-elect and vice president-elect. Both Biden and Harris have clarified that they see the policy of President Obama in recent years as the most appropriate to act with the dignity of a democratic power in relations with Cuba and the interaction on Cuba with other states of the international community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s inclusion on the State Department\u2019s list of state sponsors of terrorism is a distraction that attempts to commit U.S. resources against a threat that doesn\u2019t exist. Such irresponsibility has the collateral effect of discrediting a U.S. foreign policy instrument that could be useful in pointing out some states to the international community for collaborating with terrorism. Who can believe in the seriousness of this list when the arguments to include Cuba could not be more prosaic?<\/span><\/p>\n

An inclusion that weakens the fight against terrorism<\/b><\/p>\n

The \u201cargument\u201d that Cuba is an ally of the government of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in Venezuela to classify Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism lacks any basis. The Maduro government is sitting in the United Nations and it is most likely that in the coming months it will be recognized again by the European Union, which has already <\/span>categorized<\/span><\/a> Juan Guaid\u00f3 as the \u201coutgoing\u201d president of the National Assembly. If the State Department wants to make a list of allied countries of Venezuela, it can start with Russia, China and others. If what it wants is a list of countries hated by right-wing exiles in South Florida, then call them by that name. The policy against terrorism is not the appropriate space as therapy to discharge trauma.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pompeo\u2019s second pretext to bring Cuba back to the list is that Cuba did not extradite to Colombia ten leaders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who were in Havana as part of the dialogue between that guerrilla group and the Colombian government. Norway, an ally of the United States in NATO, and a co-companion with Cuba in the peace talks, has reiterated that the security guarantees for the guerrillas were part of the negotiation protocol adopted by the mediators with the consent of the Colombian government. Not only has Cuba not committed or supported any act of international terrorism according to the database on the subject collected by the national consortium for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism <\/span>(Start)<\/span><\/a>, Cuba contributed to the peace process in Colombia like no other state.<\/span><\/p>\n

If instead of blocking Cuba, the Trump administration had continued President Obama\u2019s policy of interaction, which included the presence of Bernie Aronson, former Under Secretary of State for Hemispheric Affairs under President Bush (1989-1993) as the U.S. representative, perhaps today, the dialogue sponsored by Norway between the government and the Venezuelan opposition would have advanced with the support of allies of the parties in conflict. The same could be said of the dialogue between the ELN and the Colombian government that sooner or later will have to be resumed as the optimal way to demobilize this guerrilla and the FARC dissidents who remain in arms in Colombian territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem of extraditions between Cuba and the United States<\/b><\/p>\n

The third \u201creason\u201d argued by Pompeo refers to the fact that Cuba has not extradited a group of those persecuted by U.S. justice for terrorist actions against the U.S. authorities. As part of the cold war, Cuba and the United States gave refuge to people who shared their political positions in tune with the visions and the confrontations of the time. The governments of Barack Obama and Ra\u00fal Castro decided to move the difficult relations between the two countries to a more manageable phase than to re-litigate disputes that had their origins in times of the cold war. Given the U.S. record of support for unpresentable positions and figures in Cuban exile, it is not in the U.S. interest to reopen that debate.<\/span><\/p>\n

It should be remembered that the extradition agreement signed in 1904 is not in force between Cuba and the United States because Washington stopped its application in 1959 to protect escapees from the revolution who were associated with the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista. The agreement regulated the reciprocal extradition of violators of the laws of both countries, excluding those in non-violent political activities. The United States could have given asylum to supporters of the defeated regime but returned to Cuba all those implicated in crimes of blood or violence against the installed revolution. It did not do so before 1960, and afterwards it took as its responsibility the task of promoting sabotage, terrorism and even the organization of an invasion of exiles against Cuba under its direct command and supervision.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over more than six decades, the United States has granted political asylum to hundreds of individuals involved in violent activities against Cuba or even in the United States itself, classified by its own department of justice as terrorism. Under different U.S. administrations, criminals such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles were neither extradited to Cuba, Venezuela or Italy, the country of the victim of one of the attacks claimed by the latter, nor tried in the United States as dictated by various conventions against terrorism to which the United States is a signatory. Bosch and Posada were the authors of the explosion in flight in Barbados of a Cubana de Aviaci\u00f3n plane. The classified documents show that although the United States did not plan this attack, elements of its planning were known by the Ford administration without it communicating them to the Cuban government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Repasando escenarios para un acuerdo de extradici\u00f3n entre Cuba y EE.UU.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n