WASHINGTON/HAVANA, May 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States said it had added Cuba to a blacklist of countries that do not fully cooperate on counter-terrorism, denouncing the presence of Colombian leftist guerrillas.
Cuba joined four US adversaries — Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela — in failing to be certified for 2019 under a US counter-terrorism law that affects defense exports.
It was the first time that Cuba was not certified since 2015. The State Department pointed to the presence of negotiators from Colombia’s ELN rebels, who traveled to Havana in 2017 to negotiate with the Bogota government but have not returned.
“Cuba’s refusal to productively engage with the Colombian government demonstrates that it is not cooperating with US work to support Colombia’s efforts to secure a just and lasting peace, security and opportunity for its people,” the State Department said.
Colombian President Ivan Duque, a conservative ally of the United States, broke off talks with the ELN after a January car bomb attack on a Bogota police academy killed 21 recruits.
The militants have been demanding, unsuccessfully, that Colombia grant safe passage for its negotiators to return from Cuba.
The State Department move will have little practical effect on Cuba, which does not import weapons from the United States, its arch-rival.
But the step is the latest by President Donald Trump’s administration to increase pressure on Cuba and move away from the reconciliation efforts under his predecessor Barack Obama.
The ELN is said to operate in about 10 percent of Colombia but is a smaller player than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which reached a landmark peace agreement with the government in 2016.
The Cuban government said Wednesday it is a victim of “terrorism organized, financed and executed” by the United States after Washington included Havana into the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate with the U.S. counter-terrorism efforts.”
“The United States added Cuba to the spurious list of countries (that do) not fully cooperate with its counter-terrorism efforts, but did not avoid and condemn the terrorist attack against our embassy in Washington,” Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez tweeted.
On Tuesday, Havana denounced “the complicit and suspicious silence” of the United States after an armed attack against the Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C. on April 30.
The decision by the U.S. government prohibits the sale or license for the export of defense articles and services to the nations contained in the blacklist. It is the first time that Cuba was re-listed as a state sponsor of terrorism by Washington since it was removed in 2015 after having been placed on the terror list for 33 years. — NNN-AGENCIES
