A Cuban top official responded by saying that the US was hypocritical.
The move by Trump administration comes days before the inauguration of Biden, who promised to revive Obama’s efforts to draw closer between the two enemies of the Cold War.
Cuba rejoins just three other countries on the list of state sponsors for terrorism – Iran, North Korea and Syria. Sudan was recently removed as part of its agreement to normalize ties with Israel.
Pompeo claims that “(f) or decades, the Cuban government has provided, housed and provided medical care for killers, bombers and hijackers, while many Cubans are hungry, homeless and without basic medicine.”
“Cuba also houses several U.S. refugees from the court who are wanted or convicted on charges of political violence, many of whom have been living in Cuba for decades,” he said.
The administration provided no evidence that Cuba had sponsored terrorist attacks. Its justification for adding Cuba to the list contains heated claims that Cuba is home to radicals in the 1970s, most of whom are now citizens, and ignores the fact that Cubans played an important role in ending the civil war in Colombia; something for which the Obama administration applauded the communist island.
The name is the culmination of Trump’s harsh stance on Cuba – a position that was well received by Cuban Americans and other voters in Florida, but which toppled Obama’s efforts to move away from the two countries’ twentieth-century tensions. .
The move places restrictions on U.S. foreign aid, a ban on the export and sale of defense, and imposes certain controls on exports and various financial restrictions. It could also lead to penalties against any persons and countries involved in certain trade activities with Cuba.
Moves criticized by diplomats
Cuba was removed from the terrorists’ list of terrorists in 2015 amid Obama’s efforts to restore ties between Washington and Havana. The Reagan administration designated Cuba in 1982 and accused the Castro government of sponsoring communist groups in Latin America and Africa.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno RodrÃguez Parrilla tweeted on Monday: “We condemn the hypocritical and cynical designation of #Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, announced by the US. The political opportunism of this action is acknowledged by all who are genuinely concerned about the scourge of terrorism and its victims. ‘
Although the Biden government’s designation is likely to overturn the designation, the diplomat said it could damage “our credibility with regard to state sponsorship for terrorism”.
William LeoGrande, a Latin American expert and professor at the American University, said that with the entry of the White House, Biden could quickly begin the process of removing Cuba from the terrorist list again and that the name would have little practical impact. , as Cuba is already subject. to wide U.S. financial sanctions.
“Almost all the sanctions that a country suffers from the terrorism list are already being imposed on Cuba as part of the broader ban,” he said.
“The only real difference is that the fact that they are on the terrorism list makes a state vulnerable to being sued by private individuals for the consequences of so-called acts of terrorism. You lose sovereign immunity if you are on the terrorism list.”