In a May 15 report to Congress, Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed Cuba from the annual list of countries “not cooperating fully” with the U.S. on anti-terrorist efforts. Last year’s report had included Cuba along with Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. Those countries are still listed this year.
A State Department spokesperson said one consideration for removing Cuba was that the U.S. and Cuba had “resumed law enforcement cooperation in 2023, including on counterterrorism.”
Despite this modest step forward by Washington, Cuba remains on the U.S. government’s “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list, placed there by both the Donald Trump and Joseph Biden administrations. It is part of the U.S. rulers’ over six-decade-long economic war against Cuba in hopes of bringing down the socialist revolution.
This designation calls for imposition of additional damaging sanctions. They restrict access to financing from foreign banks and institutions, the collection of payments for services provided by Cuba to other countries, and the ability of Cubans living abroad to send money to family members on the island.
This “is an absolutely unilateral and unfounded list, whose sole purpose is to slander and serves as a pretext for the adoption of coercive economic measures against sovereign States, such as those ruthlessly applied against Cuba,” the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said May 15.
“The clear and absolute truth is that Cuba does not sponsor terrorism, but has been a victim of it,” the statement said. “It is not enough to recognize that Cuba cooperates fully with the United States. It also does so with the international community as a whole.
“It is a known truth and no attempt should be made to confuse public opinion. The President of the United States has every prerogative to act honestly and do the right thing.”