The White House will keep Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, despite admitting this week that both governments cooperate on issues related to the issue.
Amid strong criticism for removing the island from the list of “countries not fully cooperating with counterterrorism efforts”This Thursday, the deputy spokesperson for the State Department, Vedant Patel, said at a press conference that actions are still missing from the Caribbean nation.
“You can cooperate in the fight against terrorism, but we still believe that there are actions being taken that support terrorist activities,” Patel explained in a press conference.
However, the official did not detail the specific actions that Cuba should take to be removed from the list of countries that promote terrorism.
The island is on that list that generates several economic sanctions since 2021, as part of the latest decisions made by the Donald Trump Administration.
On Wednesday, Joe Biden’s Administration removed the island from the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate with anti-terrorist efforts”; and immediately Havana asked Washington to go further and definitively remove it from the second list.
Both countries resumed police cooperation in 2023, and included addressing the issue of terrorism. For this reason, the State Department defends that stating that the island does not cooperate in these efforts “is no longer appropriate.”
For some analysts, the exclusion from the first list seems to be an initial step to remove the Caribbean nation from the list of sponsors.
On Thursday, the Cuban Foreign Ministry thanked several US congressmen for their efforts in this regard.
