{"id":7891,"date":"2022-09-08T07:18:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T11:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7891"},"modified":"2022-09-08T07:18:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T11:18:14","slug":"cuba-says-u-s-is-acting-immorally-by-keeping-it-on-blacklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7891","title":{"rendered":"Cuba Says U.S. Is Acting Immorally by Keeping It on Blacklist"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio is interviewed by The Associated Press on Friday, April 22, 2022, in Washington. De Cossio accused the Biden administration on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022, of acting immorally, illegitimately and unfairly by keeping Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, claiming it has been a victim of state-sponsored terrorism by the United States for more than 60 years. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cuba\u2019s deputy foreign minister accused the Biden administration of acting immorally, illegitimately and unfairly by keeping Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, claiming it has been a victim of state-sponsored terrorism by the United States for more than 60 years.<\/p>\n

Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said in an interview with The Associated Press that maintaining Cuba on the State Department blacklist with North Korea, Iran and Syria is \u201can easy way to punish Cuba with the overall aim of trying to make Cuba what it is not \u2014 to make Cuba a failed state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. unfortunately pays no price for doing something that is illegitimate, unsustainable and immoral,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd even though, speaking with government officials, they find no reason why Cuba should be in the list, they claim that it is politically difficult for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States imposed an economic embargo on Cuba in 1960 following the revolution led by Fidel Castro and the nationalization of properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations.<\/p>\n

Removing Cuba from the blacklist had been one of then-President Barack Obama\u2019s main foreign policy achievements as he sought better relations with the Caribbean island, an effort endorsed by Biden as his vice president.<\/div>\n
\n

Days before Biden was inaugurated as president, then-President Donald Trump\u2019s administration redesignated Cuba as a \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism,\u201d imposing new sanctions. During his campaign, Biden promised to renew relations with the communist-governed island, but he has made no move to do so.<\/p>\n

Fernandez said the \u201cpretext\u201d then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave was the presence in Cuba of representatives of Colombia\u2019s last guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN. He said Cuba didn\u2019t invite them but responded to a request from the Colombian government to host peace talks with the group in Havana.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t mention that Pompeo also cited Cuba\u2019s continued harboring of U.S. fugitives and its support for Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro as reasons.<\/p>\n

Fernandez said U.S. officials describing delisting as a \u201cpolitically difficult\u201d decision is \u201can immoral excuse, because as a result of this designation, the Cuban economy is suffering an additional pain on the one already imposed by the blockade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

He explained that anyone engaging economically or financially with a country on the list faces the possibility of being punished by the United States, and that because of Cuba\u2019s designation over 30 financial and banking institutions interrupted their relationships with the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is huge economic pressure,\u201d Fernandez said, explaining that for the past six years the country has had no sources of financing or development credit, and the U.S. has tried to deprive Cuba of fuel so it has to pay a 15-30% premium because of the risk that the few sellers take.<\/p>\n

The country is also still suffering from the impact of COVID-19 and tourism, especially from Canada and the European Union, which is an important source of income, he said.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the minister said Cuba hopes the economy will grow by 2.5% this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the country has not collapsed,\u201d he said, though there are serious difficulties in terms of electricity, power and fuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think we could come out of it,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done it in the past, but it\u2019s going to take a lot of effort. It would be much easier if the entire blockade did not exist, or at least a few flexibilities were introduced, which the Biden administration has promised but has not introduced.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expressed hope that the Biden administration will \u201cdo the right thing\u201d and lift the terrorism designation because \u201cit\u2019s totally unfair, it\u2019s totally unjustified, and it\u2019s totally immoral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no way to morally sustain or justify punishing several generations of Cubans, or the whole population of Cuba, for over six decades with the aim of making the country a failed state,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

He cited a State Department document from April 1960 that describes the aim of U.S. policy to depress Cuba\u2019s standard of living, provoke hunger and despair, and force the population to rebel against the government.<\/p>\n

\n

The Cuban minister said the government had no answer as to why Biden didn\u2019t follow Obama\u2019s opening to Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe simple answer they give is Biden is not alone,\u201d he said. \u201cThat, in my opinion, is an excuse for a way out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernandez led the Cuban delegation to talks in Washington in April on migration that he said focused on reviving the 1994 agreement on the U.S. issuing 20,000 visas for Cubans every year. He said there was progress, and perhaps the target can be reached later this year.<\/p>\n

Fernandez said the mass exodus of Cubans this year is the result of \u201ca perfect equation\u201d \u2014 the U.S. not complying with the 20,000 visas per year since 2017 and people wanting to migrate, the incentive for people to migrate by irregular means including by using smugglers because close to 90% of Cubans who reach the U.S. are accepted, and the difficult economic situation in Cuba which the U.S. encourages.<\/p>\n

– Edith M. Lederer, AP news<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuba\u2019s deputy foreign minister accused the Biden administration of acting immorally, illegitimately and unfairly by keeping Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, claiming it has been a victim of state-sponsored terrorism by the United States for more than 60 years. Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said in an interview with The Associated Press…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/d940aefffff34b59b09143dde1f30c3d\/1000.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Cuba Says U.S. Is Acting Immorally by Keeping It on Blacklist","footnotes":""},"categories":[189],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-borders-commerce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7893,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions\/7893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}