Removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List
Recognizing Reality: Removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List
April 10, 2015
Starting today, President Obama will attend the two-day Summit of the Americas held in Panama, where he is expected to interact with Cuba’s Raul Castro. The summit, which takes place every three years, comes as the Obama Administration’s policy of normalizing relations with Cuba is set to proceed. Most notably, the State Department has just recommended that Cuba be removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list on the grounds that the country has not practiced or aided terrorism for decades. President Obama is expected to act on the State Department’s recommendation, removing an obstacle to the normalization of ties between the United States and Cuba and opening the door to Cuba’s integration into global institutions dominated by Washington. Normalization also enjoys extensive public support in both the United States and Cuba. While Congress has the power to vote against removing Cuba from the list, legislators would be wise to allow one of the last vestiges of the Cold War to fade away and reserve the state sponsor of terrorism list for countries that truly belong there.
Dan Restrepo, NSN Board Member and former Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, says “The President’s reality-based approach to Cuba continues to gain momentum, positioning the United States and the American people to be much more relevant to helping shape a long-desired future in which the Cuban people get to decide their country’s future.”
It’s time to recognize reality and remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. A recent State Department study recommends taking Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list maintained by the agency. The Washington Post reports: “The argument used to put it there [on the state sponsors of terrorism list] largely surrounded the Castro regime giving sanctuary to a number of fugitives implicated in terrorist acts…The most high-profile fugitive is Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur. A member of the Black Liberation Army, she is wanted for killing a New Jersey police officer in 1973 and is suspected to be in Cuba. It’s believed that, since at least 1991, Cuba has provided no training or armed assistance to leftist guerrilla groups in Latin America. If this all feels a bit dated, it is. The latest U.S. country report on terrorism in Cuba says there is ‘no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups.’” [Washington Post, 4/9/15]
Removing Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list will open the door to further integrating the country into the global system that the United States leads. Peter Schechter, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, explains that the move would begin a process that ultimately integrates Cuba into global institutions that will shape its behavior: “While Cuba is on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list it has no access to international financial institutions or capital markets because no bank that deals with the United States will take the risk of dealing with Cuba. Eventual membership in the International Monetary Fund and access to development assistance through the World Bank will be instrumental in facilitating Cuba’s full integration into the international financial system and supporting a stronger economy in which Cubans can thrive and US businesses can invest. Their capital market access has been through Chinese or Russian banks that don’t have branches in the United States.” [Peter Schechter, 4/9/15]
Public opinion in America and Cuba is behind normalizing relations – President Obama is even more popular in Cuba than Castro.
Cuban public opinion: The Washington Post reports on the results of a recent survey: “Cubans want to hasten that new future, particularly on the economic front. A near-unanimous majority — 97 percent — says that a better relationship with the United States would benefit Cuba. Nearly the same percentage of Cubans says that the economic embargo should end.” Meanwhile, 80% of Cubans have a positive opinion of President Obama while only 47% have a favorable opinion of Raul Castro (and even fewer, only 44% have a positive view of Fidel Castro). [Washington Post, 4/8/15]
Cuban-American public opinion: The Hill reports that “polling of Cuban-Americans from June found that a strong majority — 68 percent — favors reestablishing diplomatic relations with the island country, and 69 percent favor lifting travel restrictions. The same poll from 2004 found that only 39 percent of Cuban-Americans favored reestablishing diplomatic ties with Cuba, with 52 percent in opposition. In 1993, the same poll found that 80 percent favored the policy of no diplomatic ties with Cuba.” Moreover, younger Cubans disproportionately favored engagement with Cuba. The survey notes, “the findings of the poll suggest that Cuban immigrants who left the island in the last two decades support engaging with Cuba more often than those who left in the first decades after the revolution.” [The Hill, 12/17/14. FIU survey, 12/14]
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