Former United States intelligence officials consider the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism to be unjustified, according to a news source from the northern country.
Half a dozen people related to the design of the policy towards the island in both the Republican and Democratic administrations, alleged how the “consensus position” in the US intelligence community coincides in that the nation does not sponsor terrorism.
Former National Intelligence officer for Latin America, Fulton Armstrong, described the designation as “false” in an interview with the news network NBC News.
Larry Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff for then Secretary of State Colin Powell in the administration of former President George W. Bush (2001-2009), ruled that the Caribbean country is not a state sponsor of terrorism.
“It is a fiction that we have created… to reinforce the logic of the blockade,” he pointed out.
The inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, in addition to being unjustified, harms the national security interests of the United States, also considered Ben Rhodes, who was Deputy National Security Advisor to former President Barack Obama (2009-2017).
He told NBC News that using that designation for purely political purposes of the United States is wrong with respect to Cuba and delegitimizes the purpose of the rule, designed to punish those whom Washington points to as alleged defenders of terrorism.
Meanwhile, the professor at the American University of Washington, William LeoGrande, considered that the inclusion of Cuba on that list is ironic coming from a country that does carry out attacks against the island.
“In the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sponsored assassination attempts, sabotage, and paramilitary raids against Cuba, what would today be called state-sponsored terrorism, and Cuban exiles trained by that organization continued the attacks. for decades to come,” he said.
Washington removed Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism in 2015 during the Obama administration, on which it had been since 1982, but the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021) included it again nine days before the end of his term. .
At the time, the White House alleged that Havana provided asylum to the leaders of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN), who had been offered safe haven as part of the peace negotiations with the government of the South American country, facilitated by Cuba and Norway, and backed by the Obama administration and the Vatican.
The day before, the island’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, stated that the designation of Cuba as a sponsoring nation of terrorism raises the country’s risk and implies paying between a third more or double to acquire supplies for any merchandise.
He affirmed that the few suppliers that have decided to maintain relations with the Antillean territory increased prices, and at the same time, the United States applies intimidation and persecution measures against fuel supply companies.
(With information from Prensa Latina)