Cuba’s foreign minister has condemned the move, rejecting claims that Cuba failed to cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
The State Department on May 13 designated Cuba as a “not fully cooperating country” regarding U.S. counterterrorism efforts, citing the Cuban regime’s refusal to extradite some fugitives to the United States in 2024.
This designation will result in a ban on the sale or licensed export of U.S. defense articles and services to Cuba, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a
statement.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has determined that Cuba did not fully cooperate with efforts to combat terrorism last year, Bruce stated, adding that the Cuban regime refused to turn over at least 11 fugitives to U.S. authorities. Several of those fugitives are wanted for terrorism-related charges.
“The Cuban regime’s refusal to engage on this important issue, as well as other recent circumstances of non-cooperation on terrorism-related law enforcement matters, made efforts to cooperate on counterterrorism issues futile in 2024,” the spokesperson stated.
Aside from Cuba, Rubio also recertified North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela as countries that failed to fully cooperate with the United States in combating terrorism.
In response, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla denounced the U.S. government’s move to blacklist his country, saying that Rubio’s decision was grounded on falsehoods.
“It is worth reminding you that in 2024, agencies in your country presented evidence to the contrary,” he
said on social media platform X, without providing further details.
Shortly before leaving office in January, then-President Joe Biden
removed Cuba from the State Department’s state-sponsored terrorism list—a separate list from the “not fully cooperating country” list—amid growing calls from allies, including Colombia and the European Union.
President Donald Trump subsequently reversed the move and reinstated Cuba to the list after being inaugurated for a second term. In a Jan. 31
statement, Rubio said that Cuba has been supporting “international terrorism.”
“We call for the regime to end its support for terrorism, and to stop providing food, housing, and medical care to foreign murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers, while Cubans go hungry and lack access to basic medicine,” the state secretary said.
Designation as a state sponsor of terrorism would result in a suspension of U.S. foreign assistance, a ban on defense exports and sales, export controls on dual-use items, and other financial restrictions, according to the State Department’s website. Cuba had been taken off the list during the Obama administration’s rapprochement with the communist regime. Cuba’s
redesignation as a state sponsor of terrorism came on Jan. 11, 2021, the final days of Trump’s first term, partly because of allegations that Cuba was harboring leaders of Marxist-Leninist guerrilla terrorist group the National Liberation Army of Colombia.
T.J. Muscaro contributed to this report.
