U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday removed Cuba’s socialist government from the State Department’s list of countries” not cooperating totally” against terrorism.
Secretary Blinken stated in a speech that a list of Caribbean and U.S. law enforcement officials was once again being worked on terrorism and other related issues, and that its participation on the list was deemed” no longer appropriate.”
According to a U.S. Department of State official,” the office determined that the conditions for Cuba’s documentation as a” never fully cooperating state” have changed from 2022 to 2023.“
Martí Noticias, a U. S. based media outlet that focuses on Cuba, reported on Wednesday that it had obtained access to a backup of the speech, which asserted that North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela are still on the list of countries not entirely cooperating with U. S. counterterrorism efforts.
Cuba was reportedly stated in the note that despite being removed from the list of nations that” not cooperate fully” with terrorism, it still is listed as one of the state’s list of States Sponsors of Terror ( SST ), along with Iran, Syria, and North Korea.
According to the speech,” The law establishes certain legal requirements for rescinding an SST designation.” ” Any evaluation of Cuba’s standing on the SST list may be based on the laws and standards established by Congress.”
Cuba was removed during the Castro-friendly regime of former President Barack Obama and was on the SST listing from 1982 to 2015.
In January 2021, the United States made Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism under the former president of the United States because of the Castro regime’s close ties to international terrorist organizations like the Hezbollah and the National Liberation Army ( ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC ) Marxist terrorist organizations.  ,
The Sunni ideology organization Hamas is also a part of the communist Castro regime’s operations. In response to Hamas ‘ unprecedented attack on the country on October 7 that left more than 1,200 people dead and hundreds taken prisoner, the government has publicly condemned Israel.
The Castro program has accused Israel of “genocide” in its self-defense operations against Hamas, in contrast to other far-left Latin American governments and governments, but it has not condemned Hamas ‘ explicit purpose of destroying the Jewish nation and its people.
# Cuba, por jamás será indiferente post un involvement, se suma a la jornada mundial de apoyo as pueblo palestino con exige que si ponga fin as genocidio israelí en# Gaza.
¡Basta de brutalidad, na de abuso, na de impunidad! # FreePalestine# ShutItDown4Palestine pic. twitter.com/UEiVhoxUah
— Miguel Díaz- Canel Bermúdez ( @DiazCanelB ) March 1, 2024
In recent months, the Castro government has staged some pro-Hamas rallies. Most recently, the socialist regime organized an LGBT” Conga Against Homophobia” in favor of Hamas — disregarding both Cuba’s and Hamas’s famous track record of repressing gay rights. The occasion was led by Mariela Castro, child of Cuba’s septuagenarian tyrant Raúl Castro.
A report released by ADN America last month revealed that Cuba has provided support and education for several of the far-left activists organizing and initiating pro-Hamas protests on campus at U.S. universities.
Some of the protesters have traveled to Havana and had personal meetings with the Castro government’s leader, President Miguel Diaz- Canel, quite as Manolo De Los Santos, senior director of the far-left firm The People’s Forum.
William LeoGrande, a professor at Washington’s American University, told Reuters on Wednesday that” this maneuver by the Biden Administration could well be a precursor to the State Department reviewing Cuba’s title as a condition partner of terrorism”.
In response to a social media post made by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA ) calling for Cuba’s removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla thanked the “efforts of U.S. Congressmen that have urged Biden to remove Cuba from the list.”
The message read,” Our country’s inclusion on this phony record is yet another way to keep the Cuban people from receiving legal punishment.”
Agradecemos los esfuerzos de EEUU como el stress Biden has instarado a lista de Estados patrocinadores del terrorismo.
Una vez más par criminally castigos sobre un hacienda cubano, la presencia de nuestro pas en esta espuria lista. https ://t.co/2wbdCujLZt
— Bruno Rodríguez P ( @BrunoRguezP ) May 16, 2024
In February, Rep. Jayapal and Reps. Ilhan Omar ( D- MN) and Barbara Lee ( D- CA ) quietly traveled to Cuba to join with “people from across Caribbean civil society and government leaders to discuss people right” and the bilateral relationship between both countries.
On Wednesday evening, the Cuban Foreign Ministry made a statement mentioning Cuba’s removal from the list of nations that do n’t fully support counterterrorism efforts. The Castro regime demands in the statement that Cuba be removed from the “absolutely punitive and false list” of states that sponsor terrorism, which they described as “absolutely punitive and false lists whose sole purpose is to libel and serve as a pretext for the adoption of forceful monetary measures against royal states, such as those viciously applied to Cuba.”
” The clear and absolute truth is that Cuba does not sponsor terrorism, but has been a victim of it, including State terrorism”, the statement read.
The statement came to an end, saying that acknowledging Cuba’s” complete cooperation” with the United States and its continued involvement with the international community as a whole is” not enough.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a writer from Venezuela who writes about life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
