In Washington’s latest attack against Cuba’s socialist revolution, Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed Cuba back on the list of countries “not fully cooperating” with U.S. “counterterrorism” efforts May 13.
The ruling further prohibits commerce and services with Cuba. It’s part of tightening the decadeslong squeeze imposed by the U.S. rulers against Cuba’s working people and their revolution.
“The U.S. government once again discredits itself by unjustly including Cuba on the List of countries that ‘do not fully cooperate with its anti-terrorist efforts,’” Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded the next day. “Our country has never participated in the organization, financing or execution of terrorist acts against any country, nor has its territory been used or will be used for that purpose. The same could not be said of the United States.”
In the early days of the revolution, Fidel Castro explained in an interview with journalist Ignacio Ramonet, published in English in 2006 as My Life, “Cuba has had to face more terrorism than practically any other country on earth.” From November 1961 to January 1963, there were “a total of 5,780 terrorist actions against Cuba, and of those, 717 were serious attacks against our industrial facilities,” which killed 234 people and wounded thousands. There have been numerous other examples, including efforts to assassinate Castro, over the years since then.
A central reason advanced by Rubio for Cuba being on the list is the refusal by the Cuban government to accede to Washington’s demands to extradite 11 people who have been granted political asylum in Cuba, some many years ago, like former Black Panther member Assata Shakur.
“The regime in Cuba is an enemy of humanity,” a State Department official told the media, describing efforts to cooperate with Havana on counterterrorism issues in 2024 as “futile.”
Washington placed Cuba on the list of “not fully cooperating countries” in 2020 for refusing to extradite to Colombia members of the National Liberation Army (ELN). They had come to Havana for peace talks with representatives of the Colombian government brokered by the Cuban government. In August 2022 Colombian President Gustavo Petro suspended arrest warrants for these ELN commanders.
The Joseph Biden administration last year ended Cuba’s placement on this “not fully cooperating countries” list, which the Trump administration has now reversed. The other countries on the list are North Korea, Iran, Syria and Venezuela.
There are indications Washington is planning to remove the new government in Syria from the list. President Donald Trump met with Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia May 14, a day after announcing his intent to lift Washington’s sanctions on Syria to give it a “fresh start.” U.S. government officials said this included a “positive response” to cooperation on counterterrorism issues.
This “cooperation against terrorism” list, which the State Department is required by law to provide to the U.S. Congress annually, is not the same as Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list, but Cuba is on both of them.
Cuba was placed on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list by Trump just days before the end of his first term as president in 2021. Biden kept this smear against the Cuban people on the books until six days before the end of his presidency in January 2025. When the Trump administration took office, it immediately reversed this, placing Cuba back on the list.
“Cuba’s commitment to energetic action and condemnation of terrorism is absolute and invariable,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said May 14, refuting Washington’s lies. “The conduct of Cuba, a victim of terrorist acts, has been exemplary in the fight against terrorism.”