Díaz-Canel says ”U.S. acts with cynicism” by keeping Cuba on terrorist list

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Wednesday that the U.S. “acts with cynicism” by keeping the island on the list of countries that do not fully cooperate with Washington’s anti-terrorism efforts.

“The empire is bent on suffocating the Cuban people by maintaining the 243 blockade measures imposed by Trump. Nobody surrenders here,” the ruler wrote on Twitter.

The decision of the U.S. State Department announced the day before generated the “surprise” and irritation of the Cuban government.

Former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) returned Cuba to this list of “non-cooperators” in May 2020 and then, last January, included it in the list of “sponsors” of terrorism, one of the last decisions he made before leaving the White House.

Washington justified the measure due to the permanence in Cuba of members of the Colombian guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN), who arrived in 2017 to continue peace negotiations with the Government, initially initiated in Ecuador.

When those dialogues broke down, Colombian President Iván Duque requested Cuba to extradite the guerrillas, which Havana rejected after assuring that the protocols of the peace dialogue would be violated.

Cuba’s inclusion on the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate” with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts represents a ban on arms sales to the nations on it: Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.

The island had come off both lists in 2015, during the rapprochement stage promoted by then-President Barack Obama (2009-2017), a measure halted by Trump, who during his term redoubled sanctions on Cuba.