Counter-terrorism: Cuba joins the US black list

Cuba finds the blacklist of the United States. And joined in this very closed club Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela, four opponents of Washington who had not obtained, for the year 2019, a certification required by an American law on the counter terrorism, a prerequisite for any sale of arms by the United States.

Cuba had been removed from this list in 2015 under the presidency of Barack Obama, who had initiated a rapprochement with the Castro regime. The State Department invokes the presence on the island of Colombian ELN rebels, who came to negotiate with Bogota in 2017 in the Cuban capital but who did not leave.

"Cuba's refusal to discuss productively with the Colombian government shows that it does not cooperate with the work of the United States in support of Colombia's efforts for a just and lasting peace," said American diplomacy.

Havana calls itself "victim of terrorism"

A senior Cuban official replied that Havana, on the contrary, was "a victim of terrorism". "There is a long history of terrorist acts by the United States government against Cuba and the complicity of the United States authorities with individuals and organizations who have hatched, funded and perpetrated such acts from within United States," said Carlos on Twitter F. de Cossio, responsible for relations with the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Acto terrorista contra nuestra sede diplomática en Washington es resultado directo de la política y discurso agresivo del gobierno de #EEUU vs #Cuba, del discurso de odio y de la permanence instigación à la violencia de políticos estadounidenses y grupos extremistas en ese país. pic.twitter.com/OiaxnLsRwg

The State Department's non-certification will have no practical impact, since Havana, already at loggerheads with Washington, does not import American weapons. But this is the latest in a long list of defiance of the Communist Island since Donald Trump's arrival in the White House in early 2017.

With AFP

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