(MintPress) — The U.S. government has decided to keep Cuba on the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism,” a listing rebuffed by the Cuban government. The list, issued each year by the State Department, typically includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, all countries that allegedly provide safe-haven and material support to various terrorist organizations.
Although much of the Cold War enmity continues to hinder advancements in U.S.-Cuban relations, President Raul Castro recently announced his country’s commitment to seeking reconciliation and dialogue with the U.S. as long as “the conversation was between equals.”
State Sponsor of Terror
The U.S. Department of State issues the label “State Sponsor of Terror” to countries which have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” The listing was created in 1979 and is updated annually based upon intelligence reports and available data.
According to the report issued last month, “Current and former members of Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) continue to reside in Cuba.” The leftist Basque movement seeks to create an independent state in Northern Spain. At times, the group has carried out kidnappings and murder to promote their cultural and political independence from the Spanish state.
The report also claims that several members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People’s Army (FARC) have found refuge and continue to reside in Cuba. The Marxist-Revolutionary movement has waged a violent war against the Colombian military in an effort to overthrow the government. Both organizations are designated foreign terrorist organizations (FTO). However, the State Department has made clear that there is no evidence to suggest that the Cuban government has provided weapons or paramilitary training to either the ETA or the FARC.
The Cuban government quickly denounced the listing in a public statement, saying, “Cuba’s foreign ministry energetically rejects that such a sensitive issue as terrorism be used for petty political purposes and demands that the government of the United States stop lying.”
Raul Castro has recently tried to distance his government from ETA and FARC members living on the island. However, other problems, including deficiencies in financial regulation and failure to adhere to international money laws against money laundering, were also cited as reasons for the unfavorable State Department listing.
Arbitrary listings?
There have been some calls from within the United States to remove Cuba from the list. Cuba has been listed as a state sponsor of terror by the State Department since 1982. While there continue to be concerns about Havana’s willingness to harbor several leftist revolutionaries and political dissidents, the small island country, nor any of the people residing there, pose any legitimate threat against the U.S. Some political analysts note the discrepancies and sometimes arbitrary nature of the listings.
For example, North Korea was removed from the list in 2008 after then President George W. Bush found that the country had complied with modest requests for international monitoring of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. However, North Korea still possesses nuclear weapons and frequently threatens Western allies Japan and South Korea with missile launches.
Other countries, like Pakistan, are not included on the list despite an inability or unwillingness to pursue wanted terrorists living within their borders. Osama bin Laden, and a number of his allies in the al-Qaida terrorist network, had been living in Abbottabod, a city near the capital, Islamabad, for many months before the American raid in 2011. The bin Laden compound was located just down the road from a military academy in a location that should have been plainly obvious to the Pakistani authorities.
Terrorists responsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India had been living and training in Pakistan before the attacks. The 10 terrorists responsible launched a coordinated attack using bombs and small arms on civilian targets, including a hotel, a cafe and a community center. The attack killed nearly 200 people and injured hundreds more.
Cuba, by comparison, appears to pose virtually no risk to the U.S. The Caribbean island’s annual designation as a state sponsor of terror may actually have more to do with the ongoing embargo and lack of political reform on the island.
Castro calls for dialogue
During a national celebration to commemorate the Cuban Revolution last month, Raul Castro made an impromptu outreach to the U.S., offering to sit down and talk as long as the conversation “was between equals.”
“Any day they want, the table is set,” said Castro during his speech at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. cut off relations with Cuba shortly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959 which overthrew long-time dictator Flugencio Bautista. Under the leadership of Fidel Castro, Cuba became an avowedly communist country with close ties to America’s Cold War ally, the Soviet Union.
The U.S. continues to impose an economic trade embargo and does not have an embassy in Cuba. The U.S. maintains a diplomatic presence through the Swiss interests section in Havana.
President Castro acknowledged some of the shortcomings of his country in the same speech, saying that he was willing to discuss “the problems of democracy and human rights, but on equal terms because we are no-one’s colony.”
The Obama administration has yet to formally respond to Castro’s offer. Experts, including Dr. Andy Gomez, an expert on U.S.-Cuban relations at the University Miami, doubts that President Obama will speak with Raul Castro given the upcoming presidential election in November.
U.S. officials have previously expressed concern over Cuba’s lack of political reform. Indeed,
Freedom House, an independent human rights organization classifies Cuba as “not free,” because of continued government restrictions on political opposition, the press and Internet use. The annual ranking finds that only 1 percent of the island’s 11 million citizens has access to the Internet.
Freedom House publishes an annual report ranking countries and territories on a scale ranging from 1-7. “Free countries” score closer to a 1, while countries ruled by dictatorship or authoritarian rule score closer to a 7. For the year 2011, Cuba scored a low 6.5, largely because the government continues to be dominated by single party rule.
The detention of political prisoners and allegations of repression also contribute to the low marks in human rights.
Easing the embargo
Despite these challenges, there have been some small but important advances in U.S.-Cuban relations during President Obama’s first term.
On July 14, a shipment of humanitarian aid left Miami for Cuba, the first shipment of its kind since the trade embargo began 50 years ago. The weekly shipments to Cuba are operated by the International Port Corporation, allowing Americans and charitable organizations to send goods to the island for $6 per half kilogram.
New “people-to-people” educational licenses granted by the U.S. Treasury Department allow sanctioned educational, charitable and religious trips to Cuba. Cuban-Americans can also send virtually unlimited wire transfers to family members living on the island. These advances under President Obama, while significant, still do not address the key, central grip of the Castro government: continued U.S. military occupation of Guantanamo Bay.
Indeed, a majority of Americans welcome an administration willing to address these contentious issues. An Agnus Reid public opinion poll conducted in February found that 62 percent of Americans believe the U.S. should re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Only 23 percent of respondents in the poll were opposed to re-establishing diplomatic relations.
The poll also found that 51 percent of Americans now believe that it is time for the U.S. to lift the economic trade embargo.