Trump’s final act of hypocrisy against Cuba
The announcement by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Cuba was being put back on the list of states that sponsor terrorism revealed that the Trump administration could not resist one last act of mean-spirited hypocrisy.
Even though Donald Trump’s term ends January 20, the purely political decision by Pompeo will have a lasting negative effect on the contentious relationship between the two countries. It is, however, hoped to be the final action against Cuba under Trump’s widely condemned policy of aggression against the island nation.
The re-designation, considered by most experts to be without merit, was immediately criticized by the Cuban government. “We condemn the US announced hypocritical and cynical designation of Cuba as a State sponsoring terrorism,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote shorty after the announcement. “The US political opportunism is recognized by those who are honestly concerned about the scourge of terrorism and its victims.” He pointed to last year’s armed attack on the Cuban embassy in Washington as another example of the double standard of America’s stance on terrorism.
Returning Cuba to the list carries with it substantial consequences, including increased economic sanctions. It is expected to make it more difficult for incoming president Joe Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to improve relations, a policy he was familiar with as vice president when President Obama undertook a strategy of normalization in 2014. Trump reversed that approach in 2018 with the support of the hard-right Cuban-American community in Florida, led by Republican Senator Marco Rubio. Since then Trump has shut down most travel to Cuba for US citizens, ended the sending of remittances, prohibited cruise lines from operating in Cuba, and eliminated most commercial relations that were emerging under Obama’s opening. Biden supporters do continue to expect the new president will return to Obama’s policy of normalization, regardless of the latest development.
Terrorism is a particularly sensitive subject for the Cuban government, having suffered hundreds of acts of terror against its citizens since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Many of these incidents, claiming the lives of more than 3,000 civilians, have been undertaken by various Cuban-American groups dedicated to the overthrow of the revolution. Often these groups have been supported by the American government.
Terrorism is a particularly sensitive subject for the Cuban government, having suffered hundreds of acts of terror against its citizens since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Many of these incidents, claiming the lives of more than 3,000 civilians, have been undertaken by various Cuban-American groups dedicated to the overthrow of the revolution. Often these groups have been supported by the American government. One of the worst events occurred in October 1976 with the bombing of Cubana Airlines, claiming the lives of all 72 on board. The two acknowledged masterminds of the terrorist bombing, Cuban-Americans Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, were both connected to the US government. Neither one were ever charged by the US government with acts of terrorism, and both were allowed to live without restrictions in Miami. In the 1990s Carriles spoke openly of his involvement in a series of hotel bombings in Havana. Other acts of terrorism included attacking Cuban students teaching adults to read and write during the literary campaign of the early 1960s, as well as biological warfare resulting in the introduction of Dengue fever. It is the unknown history of terrorism against Cuba that makes the US designation most galling to Havana.
As Cuban Foreign Ministry Director-General for U.S. Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío declared: “[Cuba] is a state victim of terrorism perpetrated for years by the US government or by individuals and organizations that operate from that territory with tolerance from the authorities.”
The re-listing was partially based on the claims that Cuba harbors fugitives from US justice, its refusal to extradite a number of Colombian guerrilla commanders as well as its support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. “The Trump Administration has been focused from the start on denying 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,” Pompeo pronounced. “With this action, we 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 U.S. justice.”
Regarding the Colombian rebels, Cuba refused to extradite the leaders who were negotiating with Colombian President Iván Duque until those peace efforts ended in 2019 after a bomb attack by the group in Bogotá.
Another rationale concerned the sonic attack issue, when the US government, without proof, suggested that Cuba may have been behind or allowed alleged sonic attacks that left dozens of U.S. diplomats in Havana with brain injuries starting in late 2016. None of the reasons justify designating Cuba as a state that sponsors terrorism under existing State Department guidelines.
Cuba was originally added to the list in 1982, supposedly for its support to left-wing movements in Latin America. Its return was hinted last May when the State Department included the nation on a list of countries “certified under Section 40A(a) of the Arms Export Control Act as ‘not cooperating fully’ with U.S. counterterrorism efforts.”
The vast majority of international observers have criticized Washington’s dubious reasons for the re-designation, with Washington Office on Lain America president Geoff Thale noting that “Returning Cuba to this list is clearly a politically motivated decision, a reward to domestic political allies of the Trump administration during its last weeks, rather than an effective foreign policy step.”
And Senator Patrick Leahy was even more forceful in his reaction, stating, “This blatantly politicized designation makes a mockery of what had been a credible, objective measure of a foreign government’s active support for terrorism. Nothing remotely like that exists here. In fact, domestic terrorism in the United States poses a far greater threat to Americans than Cuba does. Secretary Pompeo has self-righteously defended Donald Trump’s worst foreign policy failures, and on his way out the door he seems intent on making things as difficult as possible for his successor. Of course we have differences with the Cubans over fugitives from justice, as we do with many governments. But the Secretary of State has done nothing constructive to address that problem for four years, and this will only make it harder to solve.”
Keith Bolender is the author of “Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba” (Pluto Press 2010).
