Trump Administration Designates Cuba a State Sponsor of Terrorism
Rich coming from the country that harbored Luis Posada
After weeks of rumors, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the Trump administration is re-designating Cuba as a “state sponsor of terror.” The move could hamper efforts by the incoming Biden administration to attempt to normalize relations with Havana.
Cuba was first designated as a state sponsor of terror by the Reagan administration in 1982. This move was reversed in 2015 by President Obama, who took other steps to normalize with Havana, including lifting travel restrictions and sanctions on Cuban goods.
Since Obama never fully lifted the decades-old trade embargo on Cuba, the Trump administration was able to reverse his steps towards normalization. Since coming into office, President Trump has gradually re-imposed Cuba-related sanctions and travel restrictions.
To reverse Pompeo’s action, the Biden administration will have to certify the delisting with Congress, a process that could take months. Currently, the only other countries listed as state sponsors of terror are Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
One of the reasons Pompeo cites for the designation is Cuba’s support for Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro. The US claims Cuba’s military is keeping Maduro in power, but that is not the case. The reality of the situation is that Juan Guaido, who the US recognized as president of Venezuela, never had much support in the country. Guaido’s attempted coups failed miserably, and the military has stayed loyal to Maduro.
Pompeo’s announcement marked the second terror designation he announced this week. On Sunday night, he released a statement that said the administration will designate Yemen’s Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. The designation that will have grave consequences for the civilians in Yemen who are suffering from severe food shortages due to the US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen.
With the Trump administration in its final days, Pompeo seems determined to enact as many hardline policies as he can to tie the hands of the incoming administration.
Source: Antiwar.com
Investigations have said U.S. intelligence services were aware of the terrorist attack that would bring down a Cuban plane.
On Oct. 6, 1976, Cubana Flight 455 on its way from Barbados to Jamaica was bombed shortly after takeoff, killing 73 people, including the Cuban national fencing team.
In 2011, declassified CIA documents showed that two of the key figures in this terrorist attack were Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, right-wing Cubans who fled the island after the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
The U.S. government refused to extradite Posada Carriles to Cuba or Venezuela to face judicial proceedings for his crimes while he lived in Miami in 2005 and Bosch died on April 27, 2011.
Source: The Cuban Handshake
We are not a nation of peace. The US wages unnecessary wars for profit and power. It designates other states as terrorist while it terrorizes its own citizens and the world.
Its also done to push attention away from what America did in Iraq. 500,000 dead civilians and they act like they did nothing wrong. One sniper could of taken out Saddam. They used him to attack Iran with US made chemical weapons but he served out his use.
U.S. Administration Designates U.S. a State Sponsor of Terrorism