WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration on Monday re-designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” hitting the country with new sanctions that endorse President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to renew relations with the communist-ruled island. , could hinder.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the move, noting in particular Cuba’s continued shelter for American fugitives, his refusal to extradite a group of Colombian guerrilla commanders, and his support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The designation, which has been debated for years, is one of many last-minute foreign policy moves that the Trump administration is undertaking before Biden takes office on Jan. 20.
The removal of Cuba from the blacklist was one of former President Barack Obama’s major foreign policy achievements as he strived for better relations with the island, an effort endorsed by Biden as his vice president. The ties were 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 cracked down on Havana and reversed many of the sanctions that the Obama administration relaxed or lifted after the restoration of full diplomatic relations in 2015.
Since Trump took office following a campaign that attacked Obama’s attempts to normalize relations with Cuba, ties have become increasingly strained.
The Trump administration has not only attacked Cuba for its support of Maduro, but has also suggested that Cuba may have been behind or allowed alleged sonic attacks that caused brain damage to dozens of US diplomats in Havana in late 2016.
However, few US allies believe that Cuba remains a sponsor of international terrorism, argue with the definition based on support for Maduro, or flatly reject US claims that Cuban authorities are financing or controlling international terrorist attacks.
Cuban Secretary of State Bruno Rodriguez condemned the American action. “US political expediency is recognized by those who are genuinely concerned about the scourge of terrorism and its victims,” he said on Twitter.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the new chairman of the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump’s designation would not help the Cuban people and only wants to tie the hands of the Biden administration.
“This designation of Cuba as state sponsor of terrorism with less than a week to go in his presidency and after instigating a domestic terrorist attack on the US capital … that’s hypocrisy,” Meeks said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Nonetheless, encouraged by Cuban American and Venezuelan exiles in South Florida, the Trump administration has steadily increased restrictions on flights, trade and financial transactions between the US and the island.
The latest sanctions 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 trips from the US to Cuba will be banned, as will remittances to Cuba from relatives in the United States, a major source of income for the impoverished island.
But now that the dollar-generating company is already reeling from the effects of the coronavirus and previous measures, such as Trump’s ban on cruise ships and the remittance ceiling, the biggest impact will likely be diplomatic.
“This will really slow down any thaw in relations with the Biden government,” said Emilio Morales, an exiled Cuban economist and chairman of the Miami-based Havana Consulting Group.
Morales said the measure will take at least a year to settle and will require careful investigation by the US government. He also doubts that Biden, who played no major role in opening the Obama administration to Cuba, would be willing to invest the kind of political capital that Obama did and without giving anything back to Cuba’s leadership.
Obama’s removal of Cuba from the list of “state sponsors of terrorism” has been a prime target of Trump, Pompeo and other Cuban hawks in the current administration.
Cuba has repeatedly refused to extradite US fugitives who have been granted asylum, including a black militant who was convicted in the 1970s for the murder of a New Jersey state soldier. In addition to political refugee status, US fugitives have received free housing, health care and other benefits thanks to the Cuban government, which maintains that the US has no “legal or moral basis” for demanding their return.
But perhaps the biggest change since Obama’s outreach in 2015 has been Cuba’s strong support for Maduro, who is considered by a dictator whose theft of the oil-based economy has driven 5 million Venezuelans from their homes.
Cuba has a long-standing alliance with Maduro, although it has long denied having 20,000 troops and intelligence agents in Venezuela and says it has not carried out any security operations. However, Cuban officials have said they have the right to conduct any wide-ranging military and intelligence cooperation that they deem legitimate.
The relationship between the two countries has grown significantly over the past two decades, with Venezuela sending oil shipments worth billions of dollars to Cuba and receiving tens of thousands of workers, including medical personnel.
In May 2020, the State Department added Cuba to a list of countries that do not cooperate in US anti-terrorism 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 requests to be extradited to answer for the 2019 car bomb attack. at a police academy in Bogota that killed 22 people.
Cuba has rejected such requests, saying that handing over the leaders would be in violation of protocols agreed by the Colombian government for peace efforts that were cut short after the deadly bombings.
In rejecting the charges, President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said that Cuba was a victim of terrorism. As an example, he cited an armed attack on his embassy in Washington in April last year. Cubans see the blacklist as a tool for the US to justify the long-standing embargo on the island and other economic sanctions that have paralyzed their economy.
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Associated Press diplomatic writer Matthew Lee covered this story in Washington and AP writer Joshua Goodman from Miami. AP writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.