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.

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