THE AFRICA BAZAAR STAFF
January 11, 2021
The Trump administration said it has re-designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism for repeated violations of international terrorism laws by providing safe harbor to terrorists.
The administration’s latest move against Cuba, announced by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday, builds upon other punitive actions that have been leveled against the Castro regime since 2017 after President Trump took office and proceeded to reverse the Obama era’s 2015 U-S.-Cuba diplomacy reengagement.
The Trump administration accused the Castro regime of decades of citizens maltreatments and harboring several wanted and convicted American political fugitives like Joanne Cheismard, who is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list for killing a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973, convicted killer Ishmaek LaBeet, who killed eight people in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1972 and Charles Lee All, who is charged with killing a New Mexico state policeman in 1971, and others from justice
The U.S. also alleged that Cuba has refused requests to extradite 10 ELN leaders living in its capital, Havana after the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Bogota police academy that killed 22 people and injured more than 87 others
As a results of these infractions, the U.S. is refusing the Castro regime the “resources it uses to oppress its people at home, and countering its malign interference in Venezuela and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.”
“With this action, [the U.S.] will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of the US justice,” stated a statement from the State Department.
The statement further stated that “Cuba returns to the SST list following its broken commitment to stop supporting terrorism as a condition of its removal by the previous administration in 2015. On May 13, 2020 the State Department notified Congress that it had certified Cuba under section 40A of the Arms Exports Control Act as “not cooperating fully” with the US counterterrorism efforts in 2019.”
“Today’s designation subjects Cuba to sanction that penalize persons and countries engaging in certain trade with Cuba, restricts U.S. foreign assistance, bans defense exports and sales and imposes certain controls on expo of dual use items.”
