Trump Administration May Place Cuba on US’ Terrorism Sponsor List
SMA NEWS – WASHINGTON
Under the Trump administration, relations between the US and Cuba have grown increasingly tense, with the Land of the Free informing congressional lawmakers in May that the island nation was “not cooperating fully” with the US’ counterterrorism efforts.
Officials within the US Department of State have reportedly drafted a proposal to designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, a move widely seen as a last-minute bid by the Trump administration to block any intention by the incoming administration to ease relations.
Officials also noted the proposal was developed by the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, not the Counterterrorism Bureau which would typically play a key role in such a decision.
Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security adviser who helped reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba under the Obama administration, told the outlet reports of the possible move are “complete nonsense.”
In order to add a country to the list, the agency must prove that the nation has “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” Once added, the designation allows Washington to issue restrictions on US foreign assistance, ban defense exports and sales, exert control over exports on dual-use items, and implement other miscellaneous financial restrictions.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration began to give hints of its intentions to relist Cuba as a terrorism sponsor when the State Department formally notified the US Congress in May that the country was failing to cooperate with the US’ counterterrorism measures. The agency specifically cited Cuba’s refusal to extradite 10 members of Colombia’s National Liberation Army residing in Havana who had claimed responsibility for the January 2019 bombing of a police academy in Bogotá.
More recently, a State Department-sponsored study prompted an even more heated standoff between the two countries after it claimed that directed radio frequency energy was the “most plausible mechanism” responsible for the mysterious symptoms that several diplomats at the US and Canadian Embassies in Havana reported experiencing in late 2016. Cuban officials rejected the early December report and stated that the conclusion was “certainly not a proven fact.”
Additionally, the US recently issued sanctions against three businesses it accused of being run by the Cuban military and sidestepping existing sanctions
