WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration on Monday redesigned Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, hitting the country with new sanctions that could undermine President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to renew relations with the communist-ruled island.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the measure, citing in particular the fact that Cuba continues to harbor US fugitives, his refusal to extradite a circle of Colombian guerrilla commanders and also his support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The appointment, which has been under discussion for years, is one of several last-minute foreign policy measures that the Trump administration is taking before Biden took office on January 20.
Removing Cuba from the black list was one of the main achievements of former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, as he sought better relations with the island, an effort endorsed by Biden as his vice president. The ties were essentially frozen after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
As with Iran, Trump sought to reverse many of Obama’s decisions involving Cuba. He took a tough stance on Havana and reversed many of the sanctions that the Obama administration had eased or lifted after the restoration of full diplomatic relations in 2015.
Since Trump took office, after a campaign that attacked Obama’s measures to normalize relations with Cuba, ties have become increasingly tense.
In addition to attacking Cuba for its support for Maduro, the Trump administration has also suggested that Cuba may have been behind or allowed alleged sonic attacks that left dozens of American diplomats in Havana with brain injuries from the end of 2016.
However, few United States allies believe that Cuba remains a sponsor of international terrorism, contesting either the definition based on support for Maduro or openly rejecting American claims that Cuban authorities are financing or planning international terrorist attacks.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned the United States’ action. “US 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’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Trump’s appointment would not help the Cuban people and aims only to tie the hands of the Biden government.
“This designation of Cuba as a state sponsoring terrorism with less than a week to end its presidency and after it incited a domestic terrorist attack in the capital of the United States … this is hypocrisy,” Meeks said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Still, supported by Cuban-American and Venezuelan exiles in South Florida, the Trump administration has steadily increased restrictions on flights, trade and financial transactions between the United States and the island.
The latest sanctions place Cuba alongside North Korea, Syria and Iran as the only foreign nations considered to be sponsors of terrorism. As a result of Monday’s actions, most travel from the United States to Cuba will be banned, as well as sending remittances to Cuba from relatives in the United States, a significant source of income for the impoverished island.
But with the dollar-generating businesses already suffering from the effects of coronavirus and previous measures, such as Trump’s ban on cruise ships and the limit on remittances, the biggest impact is likely to be diplomatic.
“This will really slow any thaw in relations with the Biden government,” said Emilio Morales, an exiled Cuban economist and president of the Miami Consulting Group, based in Miami.
Morales said the cancellation of the measure will take at least a year and will require careful study by the U.S. government. He also has 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 launch a lifeline for the Cuban leadership with nothing in return.
Obama’s removal of Cuba from the list of “terrorist sponsoring states” was one of the main targets of Trump, Pompeo and other Cuban hawks in the current government.
Cuba has repeatedly refused to hand over asylum-seeking American fugitives, including a black militant convicted of the murder of a New Jersey state soldier in the 1970s. In addition to political refugee status, U.S. fugitives received free housing, medical care and other benefits thanks to the Cuban government, which insists that the US has no “legal or moral basis” to demand its return.
But perhaps the biggest change since Obama’s 2015 reach is Cuba’s strong support for Maduro, who is considered a dictator whose theft of the oil-based economy has driven 5 million Venezuelans out of their homes.
Cuba has a long-standing alliance with Maduro, although it has long denied having 20,000 soldiers and intelligence agents in Venezuela and says it has not carried out any security operations. The Cuban authorities, however, said they had the right to conduct extensive military and intelligence cooperation that they considered legitimate.
The relationship between the two countries has strengthened in the past two decades, with Venezuela sending billions of dollars worth of oil shipments to Cuba and receiving tens of thousands of employees, including doctors.
In May 2020, the State Department added Cuba to a list of countries that do not cooperate with the United States’ anti-terrorism programs.
In making this determination, the department said that 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 respond to the 2019 bomb attack on a security academy. police in Bogotá. killed 22 people.
Cuba rejected those requests, saying that handing over the leaders would violate the protocols agreed by the Colombian government for peace efforts interrupted after the deadly bombing.
In repudiating the allegations, President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that Cuba was a victim of terrorism. He cited an armed attack on his embassy in Washington last April as an example. Cubans see the blacklist as an aid to the US to justify the long-standing embargo on the island and other economic sanctions that have hurt 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.