Washington is not about to remove Cuba from its blacklist, says Blinken

March 23, 2023

The United States is not about to remove Cuba from its blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, said Thursday the head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken.

“We don’t plan to take them off the list,” Blinken said when asked about it during a hearing before the Republican-dominated House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

“Clearly, no,” he again replied to a Republican elected official to find out if Cuba had taken measures to consider removing the country from this blacklist. “The bar is very high”.

Former US President Donald Trump ended the policy of openness towards Cuba initiated by his predecessor Barack Obama, and put the country back on his blacklist in January 2021.

Upon arriving at the White House in 2021, President Joe Biden promised to review US policy toward Cuba, but his rhetoric has hardened following the crackdown on anti-government protests on the island in July. 2021.

“Secretary of State Blinken confirms the obvious: the current US administration never intended to reverse Trump’s unfair designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, because it did not suit his policy. criminal of economic asphyxiation”, reacted on Twitter the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez.

“In effect, it confirms that the State Department’s qualification lists are nothing more than instruments of political and economic coercion totally unrelated to such sensitive issues as terrorism, religion, human rights, trafficking narcotics and corruption,” he added.

In addition to the one on support for terrorism, Cuba is on another list, that of countries that attack religious freedom.

Despite this, the two countries have resumed discussions on international crime and migration issues. A high-level US delegation recently visited Cuba.

Washington and Havana resumed discussions on the theme of migration in 2022 against a backdrop of record emigration of Cubans, particularly to the United States.

The American Embassy in Havana resumed in early January the full issuance of visas for Cubans wishing to settle in the United States.