On May 15 U.S. Secretary of Antony Blinken released the State Department’s annual list of the following four states that did not fully cooperate with the U.S. anti-terrorism efforts: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Syria and Venezuela. [1]
The Secretary also stated that the U.S. had determined that the circumstances for the [prior] certification of Cuba for this list had changed and thus the new list excluded Cuba. The changes were Colombia’s cancellation of its request for Cuba to extradite commanders of ELN (guerrilla group) and the 2023 resumption of U.S.-Cuba police cooperation, including the fight against terrorism
The Secretary closed by stating that this list is not the same as the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which by statute establishes specific legal criteria for recission which have not been met by Cuba.
Reactions
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also had a similar reaction. He said, “All political manipulation of the issue should cease and our arbitrary and unjust inclusion on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism should end.”
On May 16, the Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson, Vidant Patel, made the following response to a journalist’s question about these issues:
- “So the designation of a state sponsor of terrorism is a totally separate process from an NFCC certification. There have been countries certified as NFCCs without being designated as state sponsors of terrorism, and vice versa. U.S. law establishes specific statutory criteria for rescinding any state sponsor of terrorism designation, and any review of Cuba’s status on this would need to be based on the law and the criteria established by Congress.”
- “So to take a step back on this NFCC . . . process, . . . the department determined that the circumstances for Cuba’s certifications as not fully cooperating country have changed from 2022 to 2023. First, Cuba’s refusal to engage with Colombia on extradition requests for National Liberation Army members supported Cuba’s NFCC certification for 2022. In August of 2022, pursuant to an order from Colombian President Petro, Colombia’s attorney general announced that arrest warrant would be suspended against 17 ELN commanders, including those whose extradition Colombia had previously requested from Cuba. Moreover, the U.S. and Cuba resumed law enforcement cooperation in 2023, including on counterterrorism.”
- “Therefore, we’ve determined that Cuba’s continued certification as a not fully cooperating country was no longer appropriate. . . .{S]ales of defense articles to Cuba will continue to be restricted under Section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act given Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism. Moreover, Cuba remains subject to a incredibly comprehensive embargo still.”
- “[A state]can be a cooperator on counterterrorism, but we still believe that there are actions that they are undertaking that of the support of terrorist activities. I’m not going to get into those specifically from up here.”
As a blogger interested in legal issues relating to Cuba and a frequent commentator on the U.S. listing Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, I was surprised by this related category of non-cooperators against terrorism.
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[1] [State] Department Press Briefing, May 16, 2024; The US Excludes Cuba from the list of countries that do not cooperate in the fight against terrorism, Diario de Cuba (May 15, 2024). Torres, U.S. Removes Cuba from list of countries ‘not cooperating fully’ with anti-terrrorism efforts, Miami Herald (May 16, 2024), As a non-subscriber to the Miami Herald, this blogger was unable to read this article. We would welcome a comment of any additional details in this article from a reader who has access to that newspaper
