WASHINGTON – The State Department appointed Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism on Monday, in a last-minute foreign policy coup that will complicate the Biden government’s plans to restore more friendly relations with Havana.
In a note, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited Cuba’s welcoming of 10 rebel Colombian leaders, along with a handful of American fugitives wanted for crimes committed in the 1970s, and Cuba’s support for Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Pompeo said the action sent the message that “the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and the subversion of US justice”.
The New York Times reported last month that Pompeo was considering the move and had a plan to do so at his desk.
The action, announced a few days before the Trump administration, reverses a step taken in 2015 after President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, calling his decades of political and economic isolation a relic of the Cold War.
Once in office, President Trump acted swiftly to undermine Obama’s opening policy, much to the delight of Cuban-American and other Latino voters in Florida, who hailed his aggressive stance on Havana and its socialist and anti-American ally Maduro .
Other Republicans applauded Trump, saying Havana failed to impose political reforms and continued to crack down on dissent, breaking promises made to the Obama administration.
US officials said the plan to return Cuba to the list of sponsors of terrorism was developed, in a break with the standard process, by the State Department’s Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau, rather than the Counterterrorism Bureau, which it would normally perform. a central role in such a decision.
Monday’s designation said that Cuba “has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism”, according to the State Department’s criteria for adding countries to the list, which includes only three other nations: Iran, North Korea and Syria.
The measure automatically triggers United States sanctions against Cuba – probably with negligible effect, experts said, given the scale of US penalties against Havana.
But the move could be a symbolic deterrent for companies, adding “another one among many disincentives to seek opportunities for export, import or service to Cuba,” said John Kavulich, president of the US-Cuba Trade and Economy Council.
Pompeo’s statement cited Cuba’s refusal to extradite 10 leaders from the Colombian National Liberation Army, also designated a foreign terrorist organization, who has lived in Havana since 2017. The leaders traveled to Havana in 2017 for peace negotiations promoted by Cuba to end a long-running insurgency in Colombia and have not returned home.
The National Liberation Army took responsibility for the bombing of a Bogotá police academy in January 2019, which killed 22 people and wounded more than 87.
Pompeo also cited the presence in Cuba of three fugitives accused or convicted of murder in the early 1970s, including Joanne D. Chesimard, 73, a former member of the Black Liberation Army who now goes by the name of Assata Shakur, and who remains on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists for killing a New Jersey state police officer in 1973.
His statement also said that the Cuban government “is engaged in a series of evil behaviors across the region” and that its intelligence and security services are “helping Nicolás Maduro to maintain dominance over his people and, at the same time, allow terrorist organizations to operate ”. the Cuban government supported Colombian rebels beyond its borders and that its assistance to Mr. Maduro helped to create “a permissive environment for international terrorists to live and prosper in Venezuela”.
During the campaign, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke of a return to Obama’s more open approach to Havana, promising “to promptly reverse the failed Trump policies that inflicted damage on the Cuban people and did nothing to advance democracy and human rights. . “
While the Biden government can remove Cuba from the terrorist list, it will require a review process that could take months.
Ted A. Henken, associate professor of sociology at Baruch College in New York, called the designation a “symbolic final gesture” by the Trump administration towards Cuba, as well as a reward for the Cuban exile community and Latin voters who think like him. resulted in surprisingly strong numbers for the president in November.
“It is unjustified on the basis of merits or evidence,” he said. “Cuba is a dictatorship that systematically denies fundamental rights to its citizens, but it has not been shown to be involved in terrorist activities”.
“The designation is politically motivated for a domestic audience in the United States,” he added.
William LeoGrande, a professor of government at American University in Washington, noted that Trump’s numerous sanctions against Cuba meant that the new designation would have little additional effect.
In the past two years, Cuba has been subjected to the most severe US sanctions of the past 50 years, which have contributed to the rationing and profound shortages of essential goods such as medicines and food. Its economy shrank 11 percent last year, according to Alejandro Gil, Cuba’s economy minister.
LeoGrande said the designation could prevent legal financial transactions involving American financial institutions, such as a United States airline that pays the Cuban government for landing fees, as banks become more suspicious of Washington’s additional supervision over these exchanges.
Banking transactions through third countries can also be affected. During Trump’s tenure, European banks became increasingly reluctant to issue payments to Cuban state-owned companies. The island’s terrorist designation can further reduce risk appetite.
LeoGrande said the Cuban government will try to prevent the conflict from escalating, anticipating that Biden will try to improve relations.
On the streets of Havana, the news was met with anger. “This is a lie,” said Sergio Herrera, 45, a bicycle taxi driver.
“Trump has his neck tied” politically and “is looking for excuses,” he said.
Michael Crowley reported from Washington, Ed Augustin from Havana and Kirk Semple from Mexico City.