WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration on Monday named Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism” and hit the country with new sanctions that could hamper President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to renew relations with the communist-ruled island .
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the move and cited in particular the continued protection of American fugitives in Cuba, his refusal to extradite a clandestine Colombian guerrilla commander, as well as his support. to the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The appointment, which had been debated for years, is one of several last-minute foreign policy moves the Trump administration makes before Biden takes office on Jan. 20.
Removing Cuba from the blacklist had been one of President Barack Obama’s major foreign successes in seeking better relations with the island, an effort backed by Biden as vice president. The ties had been essentially frozen after Fidel Castro took power in 1959.
As he has done with Iran, Trump has tried to reverse many of Obama’s decisions about Cuba. He has taken a hard line in Havana and withdrawn many of the sanctions the Obama administration had eased or lifted after the restoration of full diplomatic relations in 2015.
Since Trump took office, following a campaign that attacked Obama’s moves to normalize relations with Cuba, ties have become increasingly strained.
In addition to attacking Cuba for its support of Maduro, the Trump administration has also suggested that Cuba may have been behind or allowed alleged sound attacks that left dozens of U.S. diplomats brainwashed in late 2016.
However, few U.S. allies believe Cuba remains a sponsor of international terrorism, arguing with the definition based on support for Maduro or directly rejecting U.S. claims that Cuban authorities fund or plan international terrorist attacks.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned U.S. action. “American political opportunism is recognized by those who are honestly concerned about the scourge of terrorism and its victims,” he said on Twitter.
Representative Gregory Meeks, the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump’s appointment would not help the Cuban people and only seeks to tie the hands of the Biden administration.
“This designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism when less than a week is left for its presidency and after inciting a national terrorist attack in the US capital … this is hypocrisy,” Meeks said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Yet encouraged by Cuban-American and Venezuelan exiles in South Florida, the Trump administration has steadily increased restrictions on flights, commercial and financial transactions between the U.S. and the island.
Recent sanctions have placed Cuba alongside North Korea, Syria and Iran as the only foreign nations considered state sponsors of terrorism. As a result of Monday’s actions, most U.S. trips to Cuba will be banned, as well as sending remittances to Cuba from relatives in the United States, a major source of income for the impoverished island.
But since dollar-generating businesses are already moving away from the effects of the coronavirus and previous measures like Trump’s ban on cruises and capping remittances, the biggest impact will likely be diplomatic.
“This will really slow down any thaw in relations with the Biden administration,” said Emilio Morales, an exiled Cuban economist and president of the Miami-based Havana Consulting Group.
Morales said unblocking the measure will take at least a year and will require careful study by the U.S. government. He also doubts whether Biden, who played no significant role in opening the Obama administration to Cuba, would be willing to invest the kind of political capital that Obama made and throw a lifebuoy at Cuba’s leadership with nothing in return. .
Obama’s withdrawal from Cuba from the list of “state sponsors of terrorism” had been one of the main targets of Trump, Pompeo and other Cuban hawks in the current administration.
Cuba has repeatedly refused to hand over American fugitives who have been granted asylum, including a black militant convicted of killing a New Jersey state soldier in the 1970s. In addition to political refugee status, U.S. fugitives have received free housing, health care, and other benefits thanks to the Cuban government, which insists the U.S. has no “legal or moral basis” to demand the his return.
But perhaps the biggest change since Obama’s release in 2015 is Cuba’s strong support for Maduro, who is considered by the dictator to have expelled 5 million due to the expulsion of the oil-based economy. of Venezuelans from his home.
Cuba has maintained a long-standing alliance with Maduro, although it has long denied that it has 20,000 troops and intelligence agents in Venezuela and says it has not carried out any security operations. Cuban officials, however, have said they have the right to carry out broad military and intelligence cooperation that they deem legitimate.
The relationship between the two countries has grown strongly over the past two decades, with Venezuela sending billions of dollars to Cuba worth billions of dollars and receiving tens of thousands of employees, including medical workers.
In May 2020, the State Department added Cuba to the list of countries that do not cooperate with US counterterrorism programs.
In making that decision, the department said several leaders of the National Liberation Army, a Colombian rebel group designated as a terrorist organization, remained on the island despite Colombia’s repeated request that they be extradited to respond. of the 2019 car bombing of a police academy in Bogota that killed 22 people.
Cuba has rejected these requests, saying the surrender of the leaders would violate the protocols agreed by the Colombian government for the peace efforts that were broken after the deadly bombing.
In repudiating the allegations, President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said that Cuba was a victim of terrorism. He cited an armed attack on his embassy in Washington last April as an example. Cubans believe the blacklist helps the U.S. justify long-standing embargo on the island and other economic sanctions that have paralyzed its economy.
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Associated Press diplomatic writer Matthew Lee reported this story in Washington and AP writer Joshua Goodman reported from Miami. AP writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.