US re-designates Cuba as State Sponsor of Terrorism over 'malign behaviour'

The United States has once again designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, accusing it of granting safe haven to terrorists and also providing support for acts of "international terrorism". The move by the Trump administration comes days before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, who would have liked to start where he and Obama left the US-Cuba relations in 2016. Former President Barack Obama had delisted Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 2015, seeking normalisation of ties with the Communist State. 

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'To deny resources to the Castro regime' 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on January 11 announced that the Trump administration is designating Cuba as State Sponsor of Terrorism in order to deny the Castro regime the resources, which it uses to allegedly oppress people in the country, referring to Raul Castro, brother of Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro. The latest listing of Cuba will allow the United States to penalise persons and countries who engage in trade with Havana. The listing will restrict US foreign assistance, ban defence exports and sales, among other things.

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"The Trump Administration has been focused from the start on denying the Castro regime the resources it uses to oppress its people at home and countering its malign interference in Venezuela and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of U.S. justice," Pompeo said in a statement on Monday. 

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The Trump administration accuses the Cuban government of providing safe harbour to "murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers", while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic necessities. The Trump administration had notified the US Congress on May 13, 2020, that it had certified Cuba under Section 40A(a) of the Arms Export Control Act as “not cooperating fully” with U.S. counterterrorism efforts in 2019.

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