Question—What does the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have in common with the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society, Venezuela’s Resistance and Rebellion Collective, the Communist Party of Chile and the Zimbabwe Movement of Pan-African Socialists?
Answer—All of them have taken public positions advocating that President Biden remove Cuba from the State Department’s list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT).”
Voicing the Radical Position
The USCCB voiced its opinion in a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
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“For decades, in conjunction with the Holy See and the majority of the international community, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has urged collaboration and mutually beneficial relations between the United States and Cuba, as well as the complete lifting of the economic embargo against the island nation.
“I urge you, Mr. Secretary, to remove Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism and to maximize our country’s engagement for the good of the Cuban people.”
The bishops declined to consider—at least in writing—the best interests of the people of the United States.
Cuba’s Place on the List
The State Department’s list contains the names of only four nations—Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea. Indeed, Cuba’s presence on the SSOT has been a political football. It first attained that unenviable status in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan.
The president took this step after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) published Patterns of International Terrorism – 1980. The report included an indictment of Cuban Government Activity.
“Havana openly advocates armed revolution as the only means for leftist forces to gain power in Latin America, and the Cubans have played an important role in facilitating the movement of men and weapons into the region. Havana provides direct support in the form of training, arms, safe havens, and advice to a wide variety of guerrilla groups. Many of these groups engage in terrorist operations.”
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The president added his own flourish in the 1982 State of the Union Address. “Toward those who would export terrorism and subversion in the Caribbean and elsewhere, especially Cuba and Libya, we will act with firmness.”
Liberal Nostalgia for a Cuba that Never Existed
Of course, Cuba has always been a darling of the American left—going back to the first days of Fidel Castro’s 1959 Revolution. Whenever they discuss Cuba’s inclusion on the list, they commonly insert the word “alleged” before the word “terrorism” to apply a gloss of doubt over Cuba’s intentions.
The radicals’ desire to “normalize” the Communist Island’s relationship with the United States was never more evident than in April 2015. On the eleventh, President Obama and Cuban President (and brother of the revolutionary, Fidel) Raúl Castro met in what the New York Times hailed as “the first face-to-face discussion between the leaders of the two countries in a half-century.”
“‘Our governments will continue to have differences,’” [President Obama] said at a news conference wrapping up the summit meeting. ‘At the same time, we agreed that we can continue to take steps forward that advance our mutual interests.’”
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At that point, Mr. Obama wanted to appear reserved about Cuba’s place on the terror list. “He stopped short of announcing a final decision, now widely expected, to remove Cuba from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism,” the Times explained, “saying he wanted to study it further.”
The topic couldn’t have taken much thought because the Times announced the president’s intent to excise Cuba from the SSOT a mere three days later. “White House officials said Tuesday that Mr. Obama had approved a recommendation by Secretary of State John Kerry to take Cuba off the terrorism list after what officials called a ‘rigorous’ review of Cuba’s record and assurances from Havana that it would not support terrorism in the future.” A key point in the decision was the fact that the State Department “determined that Cuba had not engaged in terrorist activity in the past six months…and therefore no longer belonged on the list.”
The Castro government called the president’s action “a just decision.”
Back on the List
However, six years later, Cuba was back on the SSOT. President Trump’s Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, announced the decision and its rationale in a press statement.
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“For decades, the Cuban government has fed, housed, and provided medical care for murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers, while many Cubans go hungry, homeless, and without basic medicine. Members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, traveled to Havana to conduct peace talks with the Colombian government in 2017. Citing peace negotiation protocols, Cuba has refused Colombia’s requests to extradite ten ELN leaders living in Havana after the group claimed responsibility for the January 2019 bombing of a Bogota police academy that killed 22 people and injured more than 87 others.”
Mr. Pompeo also mentioned the fact that Cuba has allowed U.S. fugitives from justice to reside there for decades. He specifically mentioned convicted police-killer Joanne Chesimard, mass murderer Ishmail Ali and accused killer Charles Lee Hill. All three remain on Cuban soil to this day.
Ambiguity, Courtesy of the State Department
Nonetheless, rumors abound that President Biden is ready to follow President Obama’s lead. In fact, some news sources say that he already has.
Public radio station WLRN in Miami reported on June 6—three days BEFORE the USCCB letter that “The U.S. State Department removed Cuba from its list of countries ‘not fully cooperating’ with anti-terrorism efforts in mid-May 2024, but you would be forgiven for not noticing. There was little fanfare accompanying the news: no press release, and no public acknowledgment from President Joe Biden.”
WLRN’s report contained a link to international news agency Reuters, which said the same thing.
However, as of this writing, the undated U.S. Department of State’s website still has Cuba on the list.
On the List or Off It, Cuba is Still a Very Real Threat
One could argue that cash-strapped Cuba is in a poor position to complete a terror attack on U.S. soil. However, the chorus of blame that accuses the United States of being the primary contributor to that situation is extensive and goes back over sixty years. The Castro brothers and their ideological heirs make blaming the United States a regular part of the Cuban diet. Cuba is unrepentantly Communist and lies only ninety miles from Florida. With the current situation on the U.S. border, Cuba could do a great deal of damage to the U.S. quickly and cheaply.
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Obviously, such statements are speculative. That fact alone does not, however, render them without merit.
Given current conditions, this would be a poor time to indulge the wishes of the left and take the collective gaze of the United States off of Cuba. In such a time, the optimism of the USCCB counts for less than nothing.
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