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By W. T. Whitney Jr.
In a surprising announcement on January 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the State Department was designating Cuba “a State Sponsor of Terrorism” for allegedly repeatedly “providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists.”
This remaining Trump administration insult to Cuba happens with solely per week remaining earlier than President-elect Joe Biden takes workplace. Many hope Biden will restore openings to Cuba initiated by President Barack Obama in late 2014 which Trump trashed.
The U.S. authorities created its checklist of “state sponsors of terrorism” in 1979, including Cuba in 1982. The Obama administration ended that designation in 2015. Re-assigned to the checklist, Cuba joins Iran, North Korea, and Syria. The U.S. classification of Cuba as a terrorist-sponsoring nation represents one aspect of U.S. aggression towards Cuba that started greater than 60 years in the past as a part of the Cold War.
Nations designated as sponsors of terrorism could anticipate “prohibition of U.S. arms exports and economic assistance,” controls over exports and providers helpful to terrorists or numerous militaries, and “imposition of miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.” The U.S. authorities makes use of this provision as one justification for its financial blockade towards Cuba and for punishment of worldwide banks and monetary establishments coping with Cuba.
Pompeo harkened again to previous pretexts for terrorist accusations towards Cuba. He talked about the presence in Cuba of three U.S. residents charged with crimes within the United Stand and dealing with punishment. The most well-known of those individuals is Black liberation fighter, Assata Shakur.
Pompeo additionally referred to representatives of Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) who remained in Cuba following the collapse of peace talks between that leftist insurgency and the Colombian authorities. He alleged that Cuban brokers are instrumental in serving to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “maintain his stranglehold over his people.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders highlighted the irony of a nation just lately the sufferer of home terrorism to now flip round and accuse Cuba of terrorist leanings: “This blatantly politicized designation” overlooks the truth that “domestic terrorism in the United States poses a far greater threat to Americans than Cuba does.”
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern did likewise: “Coming less than a week after a failed coup attempt at the hands of his own domestic terrorists, Donald Trump’s reckless and baseless decision is nothing more than a vindictive attempt to make it harder for President-elect Biden to clean up after the last four years of failure.” McGovern lamented Trump’s legacy “of inflicting unnecessary suffering and hardship on the Cuban people.”
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry responded without delay, declaring that Cuba “rejects…terrorism in all its forms…by anybody, against anyone, and from wherever it’s committed.” The Ministry’s assertion referred to “an arrogant act by a discredited, dishonest, and morally bankrupt government.” It took be aware of three,478 Cubans killed and a couple of,099 wounded by the U.S. authorities or by U.S.-based terrorists tolerated by that authorities.
Change could also be within the wind. On Dec. 17, the sixth anniversary of the announcement of Obama’s opening to Cuba, two foreign-policy advocacy teams, the Washington Office on Latin America and the Center for Democracy within the Americas, introduced the Biden administration with a joint proposal for re-engagement with Cuba.
The first steps would come with: Biden personally inviting Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to the Summit of the Americas to be hosted by the United States in late 2021, returning a U.S. ambassador to Havana, and restoring the diplomatic employees there. (IPA Service)
The put up In Parting Blow, Trump Administration Hits Cuba With ‘Terrorism’ Declaration first appeared on IPA Newspack.
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