How the US "State Sponsors of Terrorism List" Reinforces the Illegal Blockade of Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

For decades, the US has targeted Cuba with plots, sanctions and a crushing embargo.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
COMMENTARY
WORDS: RAMONA WADI
PICTURES: GUILLE ÁLVAREZ
DATE: JANUARY 3, 2024

In recent years, two key moments have defined the United States’ foreign policy towards Cuba. First, the US and Cuba normalized relations in December 2014, which led then US President Barack Obama to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list in 2015. The next defining moment came during in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s administration, in January 2021, when then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Cuba would once again be added to the list, joining Iran, North Korea and Syria.

Despite his electoral promises to reverse former Trump’s policy on Cuba, President Joe Biden has so far upheld the previous administration’s parting legacy. Last month, during a public briefing by the US State Department, it was confirmed that the review process to determine Cuba’s eligibility for removal had not started. The review takes six months, which means Cuba would not be eligible for removal from the list until the middle of 2024.

Behind the bureaucratic tangle, however, lies an earlier assertion in March this year by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told the US House Foreign Affairs Committee that there were no plans to strike Cuba off the terror list.

In response to the US decision, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its own list of individuals and organizations accused of involvement in terror attacks against Cuba from 1991 to the present day. Several names, many of which are Cuban dissidents, have been linked to assassination attempts against Fidel Castro in the 1990s. Other names on the list are linked to financing, organizing and promoting terror activities, promoting military action against Cuba, acts of sabotage on Cuban infrastructure, and disrupting public order through violence to instigate armed aggression against the island.

The list also names 19 organizations based in the US that are linked to actions endangering Cuba’s security, among them the Cuban-American National Fund (CANF) and Brothers to the Rescue. Both organizations have links to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban dissidents were trained and funded by the CIA. The late Jorge Mas Canosa, a former leader of the CANF, participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion, besides being linked to the Cuban exile and CIA agent Luis Posada Carilles. Canosa was also involved in drafting the Cuban Democracy Act (1994) and the Helms-Burton Act (1996).

. . .

Keeping Cuba on the SSOT indefinitely, since periodic reviews are not regulated, diverts attention away from the 1960s blockade, which is the subject of countless United Nations General Assembly resolutions that the US ignores. In January 2023, a US delegation traveled to Cuba to discuss issues related to narcotrafficking and migration which, taken at face value, represents a dialogue between both countries. However, the US continues to allocate funds for subversion under the pretext of democracy, and intervention in Cuba remains an integral part of US foreign policy.

More:
https://inkstickmedia.com/how-the-us-state-sponsors-of-terrorism-list-reinforces-the-illegal-blockade-of-cuba/

[SarahD]

1. Just stupid

The embargoes and sanctions never accomplished much, except to perpetuate poverty in Cuba. The whole thing is to please a bunch of conservative Cuban-Americans. By the way, they're allowed to travel to Cuba and do business there and depressing the Cuban economy benefits them. Obama was on the right track but the backlash derailed him.

[Marcus IM]

2. S Florida Cuban-Americans support starving their families in Cuba.

And they have a significant cheering squad here on DU.

Yet, these "experts" know nothing about what is going on IN Cuba.

[SarahD]

3. Starving families

Yes, remember the starving families. They are starving because Castro imposed communisn on them and deprived them of the capitalist paradise they enjoyed under Bautista. Or perhaps, as Castro said, it's all the fault of the Yankee sanctions. Guess what. The truth is little more complicated. I know several people who travel back and forth regularly. They do support their relatives, but they also bring back major quantities of rum and cigars. They claim their Cuban relatives are poor and oppressed, but starving? No.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Their altruistic trips to "visit" their impoverished relatives sound like old-fashioned smuggling to me.

Luxury items like banned products like Cuban rum and cigars sound like a real labor of love, don't they?

How interesting the slave-owners in Cuba were so thoughtful they forced their slaves to grow only products which were highly sought as special treats for wealthy households in Europe and the US, not products the poor of Cuba could use to sustain their lives all those long, greedy, brutal years of bondage.

Any small strips of land beside roads or railways the hungry hordes could use to grow vegetables for themselves were quickly destroyed as soon as government agents discovered them.

At the time of the revolution, a huge segment of the massive poor population lived with intestinal parasites throughout their lives.

[Marcus IM]

5. I was in Cuba for some of the x-mas holiday visiting my family. Waited in long lines for cooking gas, bread, etc.

Very little diversity of foods. Long lines for bread and other basic staples. Meat is a rarity and expensive.

It's not just Castro who said it's the fault of US sanctions. It's pretty much the entire world that knows it to be true. That's why the UN holds an annual vote to condemn the US's extraterritorial sanctions.

Only 2 countries vote against the condemnation of this collective punishment. The USA and Israel.

Btw, I don't return with rum or cigars, but I do take a lot of supplies for their neighborhood.