UNIMPRESSED
US shift on Cuba’s terrorism status falls short, critics assert
Published:Sunday | June 2, 2024 | 12:14 AMErica Virtue - Senior Gleaner Writer
A move by the United States to remove Cuba from the list of countries “not fully cooperating” in its counter-terrorism efforts but keeping it among those fingered for being state sponsors of terrorism has not given Cubans in Jamaica and in their homeland any cause for celebration.
A chorus of rejection that the move does not go far enough has come from Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica Fermín Quiñones Sánchez, and CARICOM, among other concerned parties.
All were reacting to reports that three years after being added, the US State Department has removed Cuba from a list of countries it deems as “not cooperating fully” in its fight against terrorism.
A State Department official cited the resumption of law enforcement cooperation as one the reasons why the previous designation was deemed “no longer appropriate”, according to US media outlet NBC. North Korea, Iran, Syria and Venezuela remain on the short list of uncooperative states, the official reportedly said.
Quiñones Sánchez told The Sunday Gleaner that the change means nothing if the US maintains its six decades of economic blockade against his country, noting that its inclusion in the list of state sponsors has been more detrimental.
“The inclusion of Cuba on that list is one of the main tools of the White House to suffocate the Cuban people, and it has persisted, despite the fact that numerous voices have been raised to denounce such a tremendous injustice that directly impacts the Cuban population and limits the full enjoyment of fundamental human rights,” the ambassador said.
Continuing, he said, as recently expressed by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez: “We are not asking for any favours, nor do we have to make any gesture to get rid of the blockade or to be removed from the list of nations that allegedly sponsor terrorism. It is simply a right of the Cuban people – a right to be able to develop in an environment of peace, of equality, without coercive measures, without impositions.”
ECONOMIC BLOCKADE
He said the maintenance of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism is what the US has used to maintain the economic blockade against the island.
Cuba was restored to the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism by former US President Donald Trump shortly before leaving office after the country was delisted in 2015 by President Barack Obama in whose administration the incumbent, Joe Biden, served as vice president.
“The blockade against the Cuban people is cruel and genocidal, as is the inclusion of Cuba in this illegal and unilateral list. It is regrettable – and has been demonstrated by its own performance – that the current US administration has no will to change its policy towards the island, especially because it has prioritised its policy towards the interests of a minority, which is the Cuban-American mafia, based in Florida, and that distances the possibilities of having a relationship as we want to have,” said Quiñones Sánchez.
Cuba has always made it clear that as a matter of principle, dialogue must take place on equal terms and without any kind of conditions.
Quiñones Sánchez said there will always be ideological differences between the countries and Cuba asked for nothing more than a civilised relationship between neighbours, “where there could be economic, commercial, scientific, financial, cultural exchange cooperation, in all areas of life of both countries, for the benefit of our respective peoples”.
FALLING SHORT
Jamaica’s Opposition spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Angela Brown Burke, in a parliamentary address last Wednesday, also supported the call for the removal of the blockade, stating that latest shift did not go far enough.
In April, she also reiterated the opposition People’s National Party’s call for the removal of the blockade against Cuba and the removal of its name from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
A similar call was expressed by Quiñones Sánchez’s boss, Rodríguez Parrilla, who said the designation is nothing more than another “arbitrary report that normally describes countries without any international mandate or recognition”.
“The clear and absolute truth is that Cuba does not sponsor terrorism, but it has been a victim of it instead, including of state terrorism. This ... can be confirmed by anyone interested in the topic and that is very well known by the government of the United States, its State Department, and its intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” Rodríguez Parrilla said in a statement, calling for an end to the blockade as well.
He said Cuba fully cooperates with the United States as well as the international community and urged Biden “to act honestly and to do what is right”.
CARICOM’s Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), which comprises the foreign ministers of the 15-member regional integration grouping, welcomed the recent change by the US, but was also disappointed.
“COFCOR notes, however, that the Republic of Cuba remains on the US State Department’s list of countries that have been deemed by the USA to be state sponsors of terrorism. COFCOR, therefore, renews its call for the urgent removal of Cuba from the list of countries deemed to be State Sponsors of Terrorism,” it said in a statement days ago.
Belize and Dominica separately called on Washington to reverse what it called an “unmerited and unjust listing of Cuba as a state which sponsors terrorism”, with Dominica saying it holds firmly that there is no evidence of state-sponsored terrorism acts being supported by Cuba.