The Obama Administration has recently chosen to normalize relations with Cuba. In addition to establishing embassies and expanding commercial transactions, the White House has also declared that Cuba will be removed from the State Department’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
To remove Cuba from the list would be to ignore both the Cuban government’s inherently malicious nature and the utility of terrorist designations. For over three decades, the Castro regime has directly supported organizations designated by the U.S. government as terrorist. Recent activities that warrant Cuba’s place on the list include Havana’s violations of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, leadership role in directing Venezuela’s military and intelligence, and steadfast support and intimate relationship with such countries as Syria, Iran, and North Korea. The Castro regime also continues to harbor U.S. fugitives and subsidize their livelihoods. One fugitive has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list since 2013 for killing a New Jersey State Trooper.
Removing Cuba from the list would also remove restrictions that preclude their receipt preferential foreign aid and trade benefits. Repealing the designation combined with further weakening of sanctions will not bode well for U.S. taxpayers. The regime routinely defaults on foreign loans and is guilty of the largest uncompensated theft of U.S. assets in recorded history, valued at $7 billion. Congress cannot ignore the implications of an undeserving regime’s being removed from this list.
Why the Castro Regime Cannot Be Trusted
President Obama’s new Cuba policy has been heavily criticized and rightfully so. His predecessors, both Republican and Democrat, recognized that a Cuba governed by the Castro regime will never be receptive to genuine engagement.
Previous unilateral attempts by the Carter and Clinton Administrations to reduce hostilities ended up backfiring on the U.S. In 1977, President Carter reestablished diplomatic relations by allowing each country reciprocal interest sections. The government in Havana responded shortly thereafter by sending expeditionary forces and resources to Marxist insurgencies in over a dozen African countries. The Clinton Administration for years attempted to improve relations and was rewarded by the Castro regime’s shooting down of Brothers to the Rescue flights. In what the U.S. determined to be an international act of terrorism, the Cuban military, at the order of current leader Raul Castro, shot down two American aircraft over international waters, killing three American citizens and one U.S. resident.
No comments:
Post a Comment