WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration on Monday again named Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism” and hit the country with new sanctions that could hamper President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to renew relations with the communist island.
Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo announced the move, citing in particular Cuba’s ongoing co-operation with US refugees, its refusal to hand over a coterie of Colombian guerrilla commanders, and its support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. .
The name, which has been discussed for years, is one of the last-minute foreign policy moves the Trump administration is making before Biden takes office on January 20th.
The removal of Cuba from the blacklist was one of former presidents. Barack Obama’s major foreign policy achievements as he sought better relations with the island, an effort that Biden endorsed as its vice president. Dasse was essentially frozen after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
As he did with Iran, Trump sought to reverse many of Obama’s decisions on Cuba. He took a hard line in Havana and reversed many of the sanctions that the Obama administration eased or lifted after the restoration of full diplomatic relations in 2015.
Since Trump took office, ties have been increasingly strained following a campaign that attacked Obama’s move to normalize relations with Cuba.
In addition to the attack on Cuba for its support of Maduro, the Trump administration also suggested that Cuba may have left behind or allowed alleged sonic attacks that left dozens of U.S. diplomats in Havana with brain injuries, which began in late 2016.
However, there are few US allies who believe that Cuba remains a sponsor of international terrorism, while questioning the definition based on support for Maduro, or that their US allegations that the Cuban authorities bankroll international terrorist attacks or master, rejected.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has condemned US action. “American political opportunism is recognized by those who are genuinely concerned about the scourge of terrorism and its victims,” he said on Twitter.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the new chairman of the State Department, said Trump’s appointment would not help the Cuban people and only wants to tie the hands of the Biden government.
“This designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism with less than a week in its presidency and after inciting a domestic terrorist attack on the US capital … it is hypocrisy,” Meeks said in an interview with The Associated Press said.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration has gradually increased restrictions on air, trade and financial transactions between the US and the island by the Cuban American and Venezuelan exiles in South Florida.
The latest sanctions have placed Cuba along with North Korea, Syria and Iran as the only foreign countries considered state sponsors of terrorism. As a result of Monday’s actions, most travel from the US to Cuba is banned, as well as the transfer of money to family members in the United States to Cuba, a major source of income for the impoverished island.
But with dollar-generating issues already due to the effects of the coronavirus and previous measures such as Trump’s ban on cruise ships and the restriction on overpayments, the biggest impact is likely to be diplomacy.
“It will really slow down any thaw in relations with the Biden government,” said Emilio Morales, an outspoken Cuban economist and president of the Havana Consulting Group in Miami.
Morales said the implementation of the measure would take at least a year and that the U.S. government needed to investigate thoroughly. He also doubts whether Biden, who played no significant role in opening up the Obama administration to Cuba, would be willing to invest the kind of political capital that Obama has done and a lifeline to the Cuban leadership to throw without giving anything back.
Obama’s removal of Cuba from the list of “sponsors of terrorism” was a major target of Trump, Pompeo and other Cuban hawks in the current government.
Cuba has repeatedly refused to hand over American refugees who had been granted asylum, including a black militant convicted in the 1970s of the murder of a soldier in New Jersey. In addition to political refugee status, American refugees have received free housing, health care and other benefits thanks to the Cuban government, which insists the US has no ‘legal or moral basis’ to demand their return.
But perhaps the biggest change since Obama’s outreach in 2015 is Cuba’s strong support for Maduro, considered by the dictator, whose fight against the oil-based economy has driven 5 million Venezuelans out of their homes.
Cuba has had a long-standing alliance with Maduro, though he has long denied having 20,000 troops and intelligence agents in Venezuela, saying he has not conducted any security operations. However, Cuban officials said they had the right to carry out broad military and intelligence cooperation that they considered legal.
Relations between the two countries have grown strongly over the past two decades, with Venezuela sending billions of dollars worth of Cuban oil shipments and receiving tens of thousands of workers, including medical workers.
In May 2020, the State Department added Cuba to a list of countries not cooperating with US counter-terrorism programs.
In the decision, the department said several leaders of the National Liberation Army, a Colombian rebel group designated a terrorist organization, remain on the island, despite Colombia’s repeated request that they be extradited to respond to the car bomb attack. of 2019 in a police academy in Bogota. 22 people killed.
Cuba has rejected such requests, saying the turnaround of the leaders would violate the protocols agreed upon by the Colombian government for peace efforts dismantled after the deadly bombing.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel rejected the allegations, saying Cuba was the victim of terrorism. He cites an armed attack on his embassy in Washington last April as one example. Cubans consider the blacklist to help the US justify the years-long embargo on the island and other economic sanctions that have paralyzed the economy.
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Associated Press diplomatic writer Matthew Lee reported this story in Washington and AP writer Joshua Goodman reported from Miami. AP author Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.